Can a plant gets rootbound in a 20 gal container indoors?

[weedlover_89]

Hello, as the title states i have a C99 in a 20 gal rubbermaid container. Its been 56 days since it sprouted from seed. The container i have the plant in is transparent, so i covered it all around with white poly to protect the roots from the light.

I removed a little bit of the poly to see how the roots are going today and i saw that the roots have reached to the bottom of the container. I have 4 more BIG plants, vegging them with vertical 4x600w. The C99 is in the middle, it gets light from all the 4x600w.

I was planning to veg those plants for another month because i have a Blue Dream in a 20 gallon smartpot that has stayed behind (possible overwatering after transplant). I have them in organic soil mix of mine, only water so far and a couple aerated compost teas.

Is it possible that are going to get rootbound in so big pots if i let them veg for another month give or take? Wtf am i supposed to do in this situation? Cut the sides of the rubbermaid containers, join them with other rubbermaid containers of the same size and fill with soil?

Thank you very much for any answers.


[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]IMG_2709.JPG[/FONT] (C99 in the middle)

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]IMG_2708.JPG[/FONT] (Blue Dream that has stayed behind in 20 gal smartpot)

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]IMG_2715.JPG[/FONT] (Roots of C99)

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]IMG_2716.JPG[/FONT] (Another pic with roots of C99 at bottom of container)

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]IMG_2719.JPG[/FONT] Room as lights turn on (can't get a descent pic with my crappy camera and room is big enough)

 

[BrainSellz]

Nice and vigorous. Looks great.

 

[JointOperation]

depending on how much longer you veg.. u should be fine.. if your flowering any time soon. it shouldnt be an issue..

roots grow down and out. so when that thing was like 5 inches.. roots already hit the bottom of that container.. root bound.. would be .. u could pull that plant out of the pot.. and have all of your medium stay with it . and you have roots from top to bottom.. jamming ..

 

[weedlover_89]

Nice and vigorous. Looks great.

Thanks a lot for your comment! They have been through a lot and i did not start with those 5. For the first month, they were sharing those 4x600w with 20 more plants. Security issues made me keep the best 5 at that time.

@ JointOperation:

Now that security issues have been resolved, i am thinking on putting some autos around the lights as well as some clones. 8x600w will be used for flowering in a vertical manner.

So, big plants in the middle, smaller plants in the edges of the grow lights. With this in mind, i am thinking about vegging for another month. I don't want the smaller plants to yield 10 grams each. I perfectly got what you said about the plants being rootbound!

So, even i veg for another month, you believe they would be ok in those pots? I wanna use the soil i have got left for smaller plants, it would be ideal not to use it for the bigger ones. I am thinking on giving them flowering teas once they go into flower, that way, even if the organic soil starts running short of nutrients, they will still be getting their food. Along with aerated compost teas of course!

 

[JointOperation]

you have no place else you can veg>? .. if so. id start the autos seperate.. also.. ive heard do not start autos in small pots.. the difference is.. autos get a full pot of roots.. and go directly into flower most of the time. so bigg pot usually means longer time before they flower meaning bigger yield.. atleast thats what ive found with autos..

also. if u dont have a place to veg.. i wouldnt bother adding shit. maybe just LST.. pull those branches apart a little bit and flip.. those things should blow up in flower.. stretching a bunch.. if those plants are as big as i think they are.. i would spread them out. spread out the main branches.. getting some more penetration into the center of the plant allowing for better nug production all the way down the stem.. and flower..

if you have flowered them before.. you should know about how much stretch you have.. and how much room you have in your room for stretch..

try to judge it yourself.. me personally. id proly flower sooner .. rather then later.. but thats just me . last time i let my plants get that big.. i ended up having so much stretch i had to setup another 1000w room to move a few plants out that i didnt have room for .

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

Transplant into a 30 gallon smart pot and lets adjust for a week then flower.

 

[dragunn]

I wouldn't worry about getting root bound at all.id worry about the stretch.

 

[weedlover_89]

For anyone interested, i started a journal where you can read here:

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=296499

 

[floralheart]

Old, but I wanted to answer. I believe so, yes on the rootbound issue.

I have a dispensary clone that started very nicely topped in the beer cup and started it the last week of January. I transplanted it earlier this week, it was 4' wide and 4' tall in a 10 gallon container, it's now in a 25 gallon container.

The 10 gallon pot was rootbound enough to do the flip into the 25. So that's 2 months in a 10 gallon, with half of that time in a 5 gallon container and a rootbound plant was achieved. All under moderate watt LED lights, btw.

Lots of roots. Pictures were impossible. That's the largest plant I've ever flipped upside down. The next day, walking was almost impossible.

I can answer the 25 gallon question in a few months when I get to see the final rootball. If I repot it and reveg it, I'll see how dense it is when I cut into it on all sides with a knife and prune the roots\root zone.

 

[Team Microbe]

Old, but I wanted to answer. I believe so, yes on the rootbound issue.

I have a dispensary clone that started very nicely topped in the beer cup and started it the last week of January. I transplanted it earlier this week, it was 4' wide and 4' tall in a 10 gallon container, it's now in a 25 gallon container.

The 10 gallon pot was rootbound enough to do the flip into the 25. So that's 2 months in a 10 gallon, with half of that time in a 5 gallon container and a rootbound plant was achieved. All under moderate watt LED lights, btw.

Lots of roots. Pictures were impossible. That's the largest plant I've ever flipped upside down. The next day, walking was almost impossible.

I can answer the 25 gallon question in a few months when I get to see the final rootball. If I repot it and reveg it, I'll see how dense it is when I cut into it on all sides with a knife and prune the roots\root zone.

I'd be very interested in seeing those pictures, I'm just about to fill up some new 25 gallon containers myself. I was just in 10 gallon so I have the same question... will it eventually become rootbound?!

I guess time will tell.... do you have any threads for us to follow bro?

 

[floralheart]

Easily. In fact, I think it's easier for them to do just that.

I started growing in 25 gallons.

Because of the big size and big root-ball, you experience rapid growth. This biggest container might bind faster than average.

It'll get double the size of the container within 7-10 days (your plant's width). It's beyond that at about 2 weeks.

I feel that most containers are nice and root-bound within about 30 days. You can grow in a party cup for about a month. A 5 gallon. A 7 gallon. A 10 gallon. And on and on... (in terms of up-potting through the stages of next biggest container)

Do it. Get a feel for the timing yourself. I'm doing the same.

Don't fear the height. Master LST, SCROG and the like. Shape them how you want them to grow.

I'd master all the basics before jumping straight to 25 gallons+, because you're going to need all the little techniques you picked up along the way, plus figuring out the new challenges. I know I can f it up at any time.

 

[floralheart]

I'd be very interested in seeing those pictures, I'm just about to fill up some new 25 gallon containers myself. I was just in 10 gallon so I have the same question... will it eventually become rootbound?!

I guess time will tell.... do you have any threads for us to follow bro?

To give you an idea of light footprint - I believe you could put one 25 gallon container under (4) 1,000 watt lights and fill an 8x8 space with it.

My 25 gallon is 6' wide, nearly 6' tall in one direction and 5' wide in the other. That's with 2 weeks veg time in the 25 gallon container (post transplant time, not total veg time).

I believe the plant could easily do 8'x8'x8' if I let it go 2 more weeks. A 25 gallon can easily overgrow an 8x8x8 room within 1 month.

I've got 4 crammed in one room, and I see how I could fill the room with just 1 of them. Zero walk around room. Nice and bushy. SCROGGED in place or spun with a dolly or lazy susan, depending on what's up.

My 2 cents.

 

[floralheart]

I would hand water most of the time, but switch to an automatic watering system, or some kind of assistance through an irrigation system, to help you water. Watering monsters is a B-I-T-...

Working with 4, but bought a 5th container today - and I'm going back for up to 7 more. Space permitting. Might only be able to do 4-5 more at this size.

I replaced 16-25 plants worth of 3 & 5 gallon containers with 4 monsters in 25's.

Mold is an issue. 100 gallons of mix is a lot of sopping wet humidity to deal with.

When the containers are wet the grow room takes on it's own weather system from the rest of the house. When they are dry, it's all about the same, but windier.

No photos or threads for now. Didn't want anybody telling me what I could or couldn't do while I'm doing it. I'll probably do a post mortem thread some day. I've lost some big trees before, so I'll save the gloating for a real success.

 

[Team Microbe]

To give you an idea of light footprint - I believe you could put one 25 gallon container under (4) 1,000 watt lights and fill an 8x8 space with it.

My 25 gallon is 6' wide, nearly 6' tall in one direction and 5' wide in the other. That's with 2 weeks veg time in the 25 gallon container (post transplant time, not total veg time).

I believe the plant could easily do 8'x8'x8' if I let it go 2 more weeks. A 25 gallon can easily overgrow an 8x8x8 room within 1 month.

I've got 4 crammed in one room, and I see how I could fill the room with just 1 of them. Zero walk around room. Nice and bushy. SCROGGED in place or spun with a dolly or lazy susan, depending on what's up.

My 2 cents.

Damn really?! Do you have any pictures of these mamas???

I gotta see this with my own two eyes

 

[Team Microbe]

I would hand water most of the time, but switch to an automatic watering system, or some kind of assistance through an irrigation system, to help you water. Watering monsters is a B-I-T-...

Working with 4, but bought a 5th container today - and I'm going back for up to 7 more. Space permitting. Might only be able to do 4-5 more at this size.

I replaced 16-25 plants worth of 3 & 5 gallon containers with 4 monsters in 25's.

Mold is an issue. 100 gallons of mix is a lot of sopping wet humidity to deal with.

When the containers are wet the grow room takes on it's own weather system from the rest of the house. When they are dry, it's all about the same, but windier.

No photos or threads for now. Didn't want anybody telling me what I could or couldn't do while I'm doing it. I'll probably do a post mortem thread some day. I've lost some big trees before, so I'll save the gloating for a real success.

No judgement here man, plus you shouldn't worry about what other people think if they're being negative. Constructive criticism is another thing, but you'd have to be pretty egotistical not to accept any of that IMO