transplanting

[TexasSaint]

Hey Guys. About 4 or 5 days ago I posted that I was having trouble with yellowing of my large fan leaves on several of my plants. I gave em a shot of grow ferts and I have seen no real change for the better, or the worse for that matter. I did make one startling revelation though. My mom came by my house and asked what I was doing with 2 gallon pots. I said that they were my girlfriends ( where else was I going to go with that one?) and responded that I thought they were three gallon pots…… and she lowered the boom on me and let me know that not only am I a noob but that I am a moron as well. ( Thanks Mom!) I have planted all of my plants in three gallon pots and I have been flowering for three weeks!!!!!!!!!!! Grrrrr!!!!!!!

Then it dawned on me that the yellowing could be from being root bound???? I don’t know this for a fact because I haven’t checked. I had some problems when I switched my plants from the 6” pots to the 2 gallon pots. The soil was very…. Hmm not holding together well. The dry soil on top fell off the top like sand and the lower root structure tended to not all wanna come out of the pot regardless of the coaxing that I was implementing. I really beat the shit outta my roots when I did this. Should I attempt to transplant these girls with 5 weeks left in flowering? How big of a difference in yield are we talking about between a 2 and three gallon container?

 

[Guest]

Hey Texas!

hahaha, sorry just had to laugh at the pot size issue...happened to me before cause they never label those damn things with actual size. It's why I switched to PAINT BUCKETS! Not to mention if someone see's a bunch of paint buckets they think only one thing: Must be painting.

First the root bound issue. This is VERY easy to tell - if you water her on Monday and by Tues/Wed she needs water again, time to transplant as she's taken up all the space in her home.

Second the yellowing/transplant issue. If in your spot I would transplant her. She's not THAT far in flowering, showing signs of nute def (probably caused by bad pH in root zone) and in a smaller bucket than I would prefer. I would get a 5gal, drill holes in the bottom, mix up some soil (soil, couple handfuls of perlite, dolomite lime) then move her into it while trying to knock as much of the old soil off the root ball as I could.

I know, knocking root balls is like rackin' her in the nuts (I know, weird mental picture) and it might put her in a tad of shock. This is the risk...however the benefit of doing this is you'll be resetting her root zone at the point where she is growing new root fibers. This should enable her to not only recover rapidly but also get her mits on some good pH'ed soil with nutes.... I think you'll see a major explosion in growth, bud development and overall health of her.

 

[TexasSaint]

Wouldn't this cause my girls to stress and hermie?

 

[Blackvelvet]

I would be willing to bet you got magnesium deficiency. Did you add dolomite lime to your previous soil mixtures? This would give the plants calcium and magnesium.

Transplant into promix and extra perlite, fafard 3, majestic, etc...good quality potting soils. They should contain bark, perlite, vermiculite, or peatmoss. Not sand and soil. You get what you pay for. Cheap bags of potting mix like $2 are pure crap.

If the potting soil does not have dolomite lime already, add about 2 teaspoons per gallon of mix. 3 gallon container full = 2 tablespoons. Be sure to get pulverized/powdered and not pelletized. Also if not already added, add 3/4 teaspoon powdered gypsum per gallon of mix to provide sulfur.

With lime and gypsum in the mix, find a fert to add to your water low in nitrogen and higher in phosphorus and potassium. It should contain all the micronutrients: iron, manganese, zinc, copper, boron, and molybdenum. Peters/jacks classic 10-30-20 is an ok example.

Get some ph test strips from the aquarium section of a petstore or brew your own beer/wine store. Range 4-7 is ok. Better around ph 6. Use the test strips to adjust the ph fert water after the ferts have been added. It should be about ph 6 before putting on the plant.

With the test strips, you can also test runoff ph. This is good to keep an eye on. After watering and ferting well, wait 30 minutes. Then pour some distilled water on the pot till 1 or 2 ounces of runoff occurs. Catch it on a saucer. Test this ph. If you can tilt the pot and get some liquid out after watering and ferting and waiting, you can test that instead. With the soilless mixes above, keep ph between 5.6 to 6.2.

 

[gsavill90]

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[crazyhorse]

If your plant is already into flower, IMHO those yellowing leaves is normal, the soil is getting weak at that point, therefore the plant uses the lower leaves to feed itself, result, yellow leaves, thats normal, the new growth is whats important in diagnosis of the nute shortage.
Transplanting with new soil will take care of a shortage of nutes.

Also each gallon of capacity will give you one foot of good solid growth. I hope that helped. Chi ne he , Nde

 

[crazyhorse]

Forgot the hermie question, IMO I think a plant is more likely to "Hermie" with a light leak or in consistant light pattern, i.e. a fuck up in your timer or break, or your roomate opens the room without givin a shit. or not payin your light bill, LMAO! Goodluck dude.

 

[Guest]

I notice a difference in yield when I finish my plants in 2 gallon pots. Three weeks into flower is a little late for final transplant. Best to do it the moment sex is determined. You could double pot, and if the plant needs more room, it will use it down at the bottom.

 

[Guest]

I wouldnt transplant at this point,and rootboundedness is a state of zero growth,yellowing wont occur because of it.You know when you plant is rootbound,it stops growing and starts to die..The one gallon of soil per foot of vertical growth is a forum staple,but totally untrue.I flower plants in NSI classic 600 containers 2 gal nursey size,1.6 gal. finishing at 3 1/2 to 4 ft tall l and get 3 oz blockhead per plant and 4 oz GF or ice per plant.I do this with co2 but you can get much more than a foot or an ounce per gallon soil..If I can figure out how to post friggin pics I'll prove it lol.

 

[panopticist]

From what I've seen, rootbound plants won't yellow, they'll just stop growing and die as someone said earlier. It's much more likely that it is related to some sort of feeding issue.

 

[HeadyPete]

Yellow lower leaves are Nitrogen deficiency. They will not recover. This is probably a result of you switching to bloom ferts with lowered N. It is perfectly normal and lotsa growers like to reduce, then eliminate N during flowering. Rootbound/too small pots will affect yield as the roots are what feed the plant and the more roots below, the more buds above.

Good luck.

 

[Guest]

"Three weeks into flower is a little late for final transplant"

Not necessarily.

I transplanted at Day 17 of flower and had no ill effects at all. Plants grew like hell. How well a transplant goes depends mostly on 1) the health of the plant when transplanted, and 2) the skill of the grower.

 

[Guest]

One of the my favorite grow techniques is proper timing of the final transplant. To soon is a waste, to long stunts the growth spurt potential.

I find that the best time to get them into fresh soil is within a week after seeing feelers come out the bottom for clones.
From seed I final transplant the minute sex is determined. I will force flower to keep them from getting rootbound in my 2 gal veg pots if necessary.

You can transplant whenever you want, but to get the best growth spurts, proper timing is key. If you time it right they take the final pot right over, but if you wait to long, I notice much less root take over.

 

[Guest]

I know when to transplant by watering frequency,when I get to where I'm watering every other day its time for a bigger condo.This normally equates to vegging in 4 inch or 2 pint nursery containers until 8-12 inches in height,transplanting to 1.6 gal 2 gal nursey size container and vegging to 3 ft or so,then transplanting to 3 gal nursery size to flower.Thats if I'm flowering large plants,I often flower 3 oz plants in the 1.6 gal containers