trim and/or transplant?

[Phychotron]

I have a grand daddy purple in a 2.5gal airpot and was wondering if it would be better to transplant it into a larger rootpot (5gal, but probably only enough soiless mix to fill ~4 gallons)

Also it has a couple lower branches I was curious about trimming. they seem very healthy and have buds starting on them, with the tops about half way up. it's been in flower for about a week and a half.


I don't have many flowering plants, so i have two 240w led and a 500w in the center. The t5 is hanging mostly to get it out of my way. Too hot to run; i'm working on a cold air intake, as it's too hard to cool my apartment off AND the grow room. i'll swap those bulbs out for 2700k when i can control the heat more and run it.

the other plant i'm still sexing, but suspect it won't be there for much longer.

any suggestions would be nice, as i'm still pretty new.

Nutes (Advanced): connoisuier, big bud, overdrive, cal/mag bloom, tarantula & piranha (both microbes).

i noticed the leaves are getting a little messed up, i'm assuming that's from overfeeding, cause i was mixing it up a little thick for awhile. I'm gonna use a much much lighter solution in the future.

 

[Phaeton]

A plant already a week and a half into bud is not going to like transplanting. Root growth begins slowing immediately in bud cycle, stopping pretty much completely by week 4.
Transplanting now may be soon enough not to hurt, but it is probably too late for transplanting to do any improving on that particular plant.
I've done late transplants almost 3 weeks into bud and the plants did OK. Not great though. That was then, now if they are underpotted and budding they stay underpotted.

Lots of replies to go and I do many things better than I transplant.
Your room looks good enough to make bud though. My spare T5 is hanging sideways with one of those twin window fans ($26) aimed at it & the branches. Leaned against my wall a good while before finding it's home.

 

[Phychotron]

hmm, good to know about the roots and all. Makes perfect sense. And actually after I emptied my 5gal root pots i noticed that there was hardly any roots in the bottom half. I'm going to start filling those pots slightly more than half way from now on. The air pot should be fine, but it does require a lot of extra watering ( first soilless attempt, sunshine #4).

I Almost took the scissors to the bottom branches, but still would like some opinions before I do it. They look just too nice and healthy to chop right away, but from my last plants (i let someone take care of them, and they didn't water them properly, it was dying and flowering) the lower buds were eventually not worth having, and i should have chopped them much sooner. Instinct says chop the two lower branches, maybe three.

 

[Phaeton]

I just came from a when to trim thread. The OP asked for time frames, not opinions on worth. Put in my bid for waiting until after stretch.

Now for what its worth.

13 years I have been trimming fan leaves. Usually after the branch the leaf is feeding has established it's own set of leaves. Always worked.

The last tray that came out did not get the treatment, oh sure, one or two as my hands would pluck without thinking. 13 years of habit. Without trimming, the lower buds were more developed and easier to trim, fewer tiny leaves replacing the big leaves.

The big leaves have more surface area and stop more light, that is why they get trimmed, they stop too much light and shadow the under leaves.
The fan leaves are USING the light, that's why it does not get through. Mature leaves have more chlorophyll and are larger, the leaves underneath are not going to use the light more efficiently, nor are they going to catch as much of it. Direct light on bud hairs is not necesarily good. Is it coincidence the plant always places a leaf frond directly over the center of the underbuds?

13 year habit changing, dang it is hard watching the plants get chaotic, but the second tray is a week out and bud develpment looks better than the previous years once again, that's two trays in a row. I detect a trend.