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What's the point of transplanting into a larger pot?

mack 10

Resin Herder
Veteran
you can do that, if you know what your doing
watering wise,
is much easier to go up in pots,
that way the wet/dry cycle will grow plants much faster
than putting a seedling in a 30l pot,
has and is being done
horses for courses
 

gaiusmarius

me
Veteran
the root network gets better and stronger if you start with a small pot and gradually increase size as the roots fill out the available space, about 1 week before 12/12 you give the final size pot. if you start out in that one the roots will grow to the edge and start filling up from the outside inwards, they can also drown in too big pots. the exception to this are the auto strains, you want to start them out in their final pot. they hate being repotted once they are growing.
 

RB56

Active member
Veteran
Does every seedling / clone you start end up in the flower room? Not me. I use coir in #1 nursery pots in veg and 2.5 gallon buckets in flower. No point in using more medium than the plant needs.
 

I wood

Well-known member
Veteran
Does every seedling / clone you start end up in the flower room? Not me. I use coir in #1 nursery pots in veg and 2.5 gallon buckets in flower. No point in using more medium than the plant needs.

Excellent point, nothing gets past a six inch pot the hasn’t shown itself worthy. By worthy I mean female or good male traits.
 
The best method for transplanting in my experience is getting the seedling nice and situated within a one gal pot

Whether you use coco or soil is irrelevant. From the one gal you can literally go into whatever pot you desire

But they need that 2-4 weeks in the one gal to build a nice root ball. I personally go from one gal to a Lowe’s bucket, but for a few of my last plants I’ve gone to 20 gal tote,straight from one gal
 

Hubbleman

Active member
Veteran
How to transplant a small pot into big one? A special technic ??

Can I hold the small pot upside down and simply pull the wee plant out and stick into a big pot?
 
How to transplant a small pot into big one? A special technic ??

Can I hold the small pot upside down and simply pull the wee plant out and stick into a big pot?

I transplant based off roots, not really the size. I pick the pot up and look through the bottom holes and if I see white root then I know it’s time

Once its time you simply allow the plant to dry a little, which shouldn’t take long since the roots have filled the pot. Once you think it’s dry, just tilt plant sideways, or upside down if you must, the whole root soil combo should come out easily, in the shape of the pot. Then bury that.

If your plant is root bound you may have to tap the pot or squeeze the sides or squeeze the bottom. Try not to damage to roots, if you do it’s okay, just bury what you can instead

If the plant is stretched and long then this is the chance where you can bury the stem as much as possible, another reason why I like going from one gallon to Lowe’s bucket
 
Just don’t overwater your first time watering, a solo cup filled with water (maybe 2) should be enough at first. Gradually increase the water
 

farmerlion

Microbial Repositories
Premium user
Mentor
Veteran
420club
Hubbleman, many opinions from very good growers. The risk to the roots and the shocked, stunted growth that can occur from transplanting. Is never worth the risk in my opinion. ( Why fuck around when you know where you're going?). I start my seeds in 35 and 45 gallon grow bags. There are no stresses from transplanting. I fill the bag with my soil and Amendments. Water and let the microbial life start a week before I germinate seeds. In center of bag I make a party cup sized hole and fill with starter mix.
When you're seedling grows out of the starter mix. It goes directly into your main soil mixture. No repotting, no stresses to plants.
If you're growing indoors, get some lights on them. In smaller pots you can crowd them together under one or two lights . I understand that, but I don't grow on the cheap.
I grow in a greenhouse now most of the time. I work my ass off at my job. Transplanting takes time that I don't have. Take two identical seeds, start one in a cup and transplant it three times. Start one as I described. I can tell you what method you will choose for all future grows.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's!
In the end, some people enjoy every aspect of growing and have the time and desire for extra steps. Extra isn't a bad thing. Cutting corners at the expense of the plant is.
Happy growing my friend! Peace. MedDakotabis
 
M

MagusMan

i am a new grower and will be potting up.just feels right too me
 

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Switcher56

Comfortably numb!
i am a new grower and will be potting up.just feels right too me
That might be the case in plastic pots (left side) You will get the same results with fabric pots, not like what the pic on the right shows. I grow in 3gal fabric pots and the pot is full of "fine, fibrous feeder roots" as seen during post mortem.

That being said... timing is everything e.g catching them before they become root-bound ((starts to circle)(slows growth)).
 

Switcher56

Comfortably numb!
I have been using "rooting boxes" for years. Similar to fabric pots but, I used "embroidery thread holders" Plastic screens 10x12" with 1/8" holes. So when folks recommended their benefits it was a no brainer for me, having previously seen the results. Check out soil mechanics in my sig.
 

zachrockbadenof

Well-known member
Veteran
thanks switcher56 i havent used fabric pots i will have a look

i 'experimented' a couple of grows ago... sdkush in a 5gall fabric pot , n a 5gall plastic pot - the results were.... the plant grew a bit better in the...plastic pot... they were both under the same light,fed the same/etc... pretty un-scientific....but....
 

Switcher56

Comfortably numb!
i 'experimented' a couple of grows ago... sdkush in a 5gall fabric pot , n a 5gall plastic pot - the results were.... the plant grew a bit better in the...plastic pot... they were both under the same light,fed the same/etc... pretty un-scientific....but....
Without witnessing the process, I do care to speculate that you needed to water your plants more in fabric pots than what you were doing. Plastic pots retained more "moisture". Don't get me wrong you can over water a fabric pot as well. So the results may have been skewed somewhat (moisture level was different between pots). The dryer one would periodically shut down.

All my girls currently get 1.5l every third day (W D D F D D W) but 1.5l was too much for one girl, she would go 2.5 days (watered on day 3 (too late IMO)). She receives 1.25l. Not a big change (1cup/250ml) but brought her in line with the rest of the group.
 

Hydro8

Member
Why not just put seedlings / clones into large pots straight away??

A couple of things I didn't notice mentioned yet.

More soil soaks up more water.

The more soil and wet soil you have in your grow room the more chance of bugs and disease. Also it is believed by many that roots of plants put out chemicals that help prohibit disease and insects so if you keep more soil filled with roots it has a better chance of being healthy.

From my limited experience plants are stronger when the roots reach the edge of the easy root environment for a bit. If I let the roots show tru the bottom of the pot then transplant in a few days the plants usually seem to go on a growth spree. It seems like they pent up some energy when the roots are held back a bit.
 

TrickEE

Member
Or it could be that transplanting sends them into a kind of shock, for lack of a better term, and tells them to grow more because there is a problem there. Kinda of like supercorpping in a sense. Seems logical anyways. And I have noticed the same thing when potting up.
 

Switcher56

Comfortably numb!
A couple of things I didn't notice mentioned yet.

More soil soaks up more water.

The more soil and wet soil you have in your grow room the more chance of bugs and disease. Also it is believed by many that roots of plants put out chemicals that help prohibit disease and insects so if you keep more soil filled with roots it has a better chance of being healthy.

From my limited experience plants are stronger when the roots reach the edge of the easy root environment for a bit. If I let the roots show tru the bottom of the pot then transplant in a few days the plants usually seem to go on a growth spree. It seems like they pent up some energy when the roots are held back a bit.
Soil can be moist but never sodden. It's the latter that leads to problems. Off the top of my head fungus gnats, who seem to appear out of the blue, under soggy conditions.
 
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