What size pot do YOU start seeds in?

[Organilush]

For those of you that grow outdoors from seed, I'm curious how you go about your starting pot size & transplanting, if at all?



Quite a few folks say that starting seeds in a small container and then transplanting the plant 2 or 3 times speeds up growth over all...but then others say that when starting from seed there should be as much room as possible for the roots to grow & spread right from the beginning and they should never restricted.

What do you say?...How do you go about it?




This is my 2nd grow and my first time starting from seed....I was thinking about starting them in a large solo cup, then transplanting to a 1 gallon plastic pot, then transplanting into their final 30 gallon fabric pots.

But I was also thinking about going from the solo cups directly into their 30 gal pots.

....and I was also thinking about starting directly in the 30 gal pots.



(I know 30 gal is relatively small for an outdoor grow, but I can't afford the soil for larger pots, and we have waaay too many gophers around here to risk putting them in the ground even though I would love to have my plants in the earth)



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[Lyfespan]

solo cups with cuts around the bottom

 

[big315smooth]

i start in solo's to

 

[EL Picos]

3 X 3 inch the less taper they are the best for me, solo cup are too much taper for me.
Plants need to dry a bit for well rooting and in big pot it's not the best way, I think!

 

[Breadwizard]

Seeds started in paper towel, moved to peat puck until it's above soil with coty leafs, then moved to 4 inch pots. After about 6 nodes I move them to gallon size, and begin introducing them to the outside, before planting into beds or much larger pots.

 

[Ace Rothstein]

I start by soaking seeds in water, then jiffy puck, into 16 oz solo cup cut drain holes.
The reason I don't start in a cup is if they stretch too far then I put the puck low in the cup and cover the lanky stem with soil to prop then up. Next into a quart or if in a hurry into 2 gallon.
The theory is to create a dense root system instead of roots around the outside of the root ball.

 

[aridbud]

I start by soaking seeds in water, then jiffy puck, into 16 oz solo cup cut drain holes.
The reason I don't start in a cup is if they stretch too far then I put the puck low in the cup and cover the lanky stem with soil to prop then up. Next into a quart or if in a hurry into 2 gallon.
The theory is to create a dense root system instead of roots around the outside of the root ball.

For photoperiods, maybe, but not cramp autoflower roots. Start in 3.5-5 gallon containers- no transplanting.

Jiffy products too strong/acidic from peat.

 

[JDubsocal]

I start I solo cups with holes in the bottom for drainage. Then move to a shallow 6 inch pot then drop them into smart pots after about 2 weeks and wait for fall to arrive. Good luck!
And for gopher problems- you can get hardware cloth and make it into a large cylinder and close off the bottom and your roots are protected. It works for my chili plants and I'm about to try it with a sativa and let her stretch.

 

[CrushnYuba]

Inside in Tree pots or solo cups. It's just too pop really. As soon as they have a set of leafs they go into 7-15 gal pots. From there they are planted in their final resting place.
I try to transplant as little as possible. You may get quicker growth for a moment but it messes up your big plant root structure.

 

[f-e]

Like most, I think the standard 40 cell seed trays don't support our quite large and high energy beans. So I use the 15 cell version. Giving a watering interval of maybe 5 days.

I also tend to have stretching issues, and bury them deeper when they're transplanted. That is worth a little more explanation. I will move them from the 15 cell, to a 5" pot with a handful of medium in the bottom. filling the void around the sides with medium, but not filling the pot yet. I let them root into that until it's not enough medium for the water retention I require. Only then will I fill the pot towards the top. Covering the stem. Which will root out. The alternative would be to move from the 15 cell, straight to the full 5" Which I find a lot of water.

I don't do cups. I like trays because it's batch watering. Not individual.


Off topic:
As a gorilla I don't actually do the 5" and find even the 15 cell trays a little bothersome. I like cuttings in 40 cell tray. I will cut up that tray, to make 8x2 cell strips. They stand in a file box. Giving me 16 cuttings, plus maybe 5 more put in loose. Boxed securely in a back pack with my kit. I don't look like I have 20 plants. There are other variants of tray and box sizes, bags and associated kit. But it's the general idea.

 

[PDX Dopesmoker]

For those of you that grow outdoors from seed, I'm curious how you go about your starting pot size & transplanting, if at all?



Quite a few folks say that starting seeds in a small container and then transplanting the plant 2 or 3 times speeds up growth over all...but then others say that when starting from seed there should be as much room as possible for the roots to grow & spread right from the beginning and they should never restricted.

What do you say?...How do you go about it?




This is my 2nd grow and my first time starting from seed....I was thinking about starting them in a large solo cup, then transplanting to a 1 gallon plastic pot, then transplanting into their final 30 gallon fabric pots.

But I was also thinking about going from the solo cups directly into their 30 gal pots.

....and I was also thinking about starting directly in the 30 gal pots.



(I know 30 gal is relatively small for an outdoor grow, but I can't afford the soil for larger pots, and we have waaay too many gophers around here to risk putting them in the ground even though I would love to have my plants in the earth)



.

I get the impression that plants produce the most the longer they're in their final containers. 30 gal is already pretty big, you'll get a huge plant out of that if it has 3 months of veg time. Could run into low nitrogen levels at the end of the show, but that just makes the plant partially self trimming, its kinda beneficial.

 

[TychoMonolyth]

I use the best method available to me at the time, and that mostly depends on the space I have. At the start of seed popping season I start with 3" square Peat Pots. I start seedlings every 3 weeks and eventually move onto peat pellets as space becomes cramped.

The best first 8 starts will get special attention and go from 3" peat pots to 1gl then 5gl, then 10gl. These go in a protected spot with amended 5 yard (1000gl) mounds. I think the optimal age for their final spot is two months, and they'll be 3 months if I wait, so I'll put them out a few weeks early and box them in to protect them from the night time cold.

Seeds at the end of popping season go in #7 peat pellets because I can fit 100 pellets in a tray instead of 18 pots. They'll still be 3-4 weeks and well fed before they go out. I don't particularly like pellets, but when it comes to saving space and transportation, they can't be beat. I can load about 1000 in 6 trays in a trunk.

 

[CrushnYuba]

I think you will really stunt your root system by not starting in something big. Every time you transplant you are losing... At least if you are going for a big plant in a large volume of soil or in the ground..
Might not make much of a difference if your final pots are only 30 gallons

 

[Noonin NorCal]

4-5 inch pots here

 

[radioman]

I have just been starting a whole bunch of seeds here this past week. I start them in standard 6 packs - 72 to a tray. I use standard seed starting mix (Jiffy) with added worm castings (plus a little perlite). Then I put a humidity doom over it with a seedling heat mat underneath... In a couple days - they pop up. Then I remove the dome & heat mat. I put them under flourescents (this year I'm trying LED's). I alternate them being under the light and putting them in the window (for 6-7 hours a day)... Then I start all over with new 6 packs using the same dome and heat mat..
After about 2 weeks or so - I transplant them to 20 oz. cups in standard promix (with added worm castings) and put them under a 400 watt MH. I also start feeding them with a low dose veg fertilizer at about the same time. I keep the light on for 18 hours (with a timer) for a week. Then I switch the light to 12 hours - within 2 weeks they show sex...
Then I am all set - the plants are sexed, the cups are filled with roots and I start hiking them out. I use my old Sea bag (from when I served in the Navy) - I can fit 9 or 10 plants in there. Last year I started putting plants out May 14th... I also put out 3 week old un-sexed plants out in 6 packs after. I can carry them out in a backpack (about 30 at a time)... I just grow for personal and medical use...

 

[Malato]

Beer cans, cut top off and put a hole in bottom.

 

[Charles Dankens]

I think you will really stunt your root system by not starting in something big. Every time you transplant you are losing... At least if you are going for a big plant in a large volume of soil or in the ground..
Might not make much of a difference if your final pots are only 30 gallons

NO.

Best practice in horticultural or agronomic science is to pot up gradually.

 

[TychoMonolyth]

Since I'm outdoor, I hardly ever transplant. I'll do it once in the house during the winter and I try to keep them small.

Last Year I started some in Medium Peat Pellets (Jiffy-7)

They were about 7-10 inches tall and I put them in the ground 6 inches apart. This is the result. So no up potting really.

This year I'm trying the Super size (50mm) and try to get them a little bigger.

Inside so far, the smaller peat pellets seem to work better for some reason.

 

[I'mback]

3 X 3 inch the less taper they are the best for me, solo cup are too much taper for me.
Plants need to dry a bit for well rooting and in big pot it's not the best way, I think!

I agree! I didn't like the tapered design either and prefer a 4x4" square pot. They just happen do be the same height and, although slightly tapered doesn't interfere with "pooling water" at the bottom as much.

Unless one knows (IME/O) how to properly water a large pot, they should be avoided until the plant can grow "properly" in their final container. Not too many folks water to XX amount each watering/feeding.

 

[Organilush]

I'm the OP of this thread from last year.

I don't think I ever posted back and mentioned what I ended up doing myself.....So what I ended up doing was starting the seeds in 1-gal pots and then transplanted them directly into their final 30gal fabric pots (after about a month if I remember correctly).


This year I'm doing the same with my "good" seed/genetics...I'm starting them in 1 gal pots outdoors under the sunshine, then they will be transplanted directly into their final homes. I just started them yesterday, in fact. I'm getting a much earlier start this time around.

I'm also working with some random bag-seed and seeds I've picked out of my own buds. Those I'm starting in large plastic/solo cups and they will likely be transplanted directly into the ground.

So as long as I am growing outdoors and starting seeds outdoors under the sun right from the beginning I'll likely continue to start my seeds in 1gal pots and then transplanting them from that into their final pots/ground. It worked out just fine for me last year, I have no reason to do things differently.


Thanks for the replies everyone...I'm always curious to hear how people go about things and what people's preferred methods are.



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