Plant is too large for current setup..

[JohnCee]

When I started this I had a limited budget and drilled holes in a cup for a mesh pot and cut a hole in a 5 gallon bucket lid that was slightly smaller than the newly made mesh pot. However, my girl has packed on the weight and easily topples over or falls into the bucket. This is starting to worry me and I don't know which route to go.. to re-pot or try to support her the rest of the way. I am going to flip the lights tomorrow to 12/12 and predict that she's going to put on a lot of weight with her buds. I'm concerned with adding supports to her because I like to change the bucket out and wash it for changes every 7-15 days and she is already a problem to handle at this point. She has built quite the root system and I'm not sure what to do anymore.

 

[Budzbuddha]

Pics ?

 

[passdadutch]

I would transplant to a biggerpot, let it go a week then flip, gonna need the room at start of flower

 

[JohnCee]

These were taken 5-7 days ago.. I tried to use pieces of cardboard to shim the pot in place, lol.



Also, should I be doing anything to allow more light to hit the middle/lower areas as well?

 

[Growganja420]

Wow, great job growing a seriously bushy beast, looks very healthy! Do not move the plant, it would only stress or kill it. Your only option is to flower it and hope it doesn't stretch too much. Expect it to double or triple in height, hope you have a way to tie it down!

 

[Growganja420]

Oh and expect it to slurp down water like crazy once it's flowering. If you get tired of changing out the 5 gal bucket every day or so, consider buying a cheap large tote and cutting a hole in the lid and dropping the bucket lid over it.

 

[JohnCee]

Wow, great job growing a seriously bushy beast, looks very healthy! Do not move the plant, it would only stress or kill it. Your only option is to flower it and hope it doesn't stretch too much. Expect it to double or triple in height, hope you have a way to tie it down!

I was actually wondering why she turned out so bushy.. does that imply that the buds are going to be dense? I flipped the switch and she is in flower mode right now.. might be a bad idea, but I think I'm just going to play it day-by-day and put in supports for her as needed. I have a limited budget and need to figure out a system for managing her for the rest of her life expectancy, changing the bucket for cleaning, and making sure the fake mesh pot doesn't plop into the bucket again or lean so hard to one side that the pot literally pops out the top of the bucket (this broke a few roots the first time, but lucky I was there to catch it.. could have been really bad). The only way I can change the bucket is by lifting the lid straight up and sliding an empty bucket under to hold the roots while I clean the other one and replace it, but I basically have to grab the roots with my hand and gently pull them into the bucket to make sure I got them all in there before setting the lid down ( is this a bad idea? ).

Here are a few pictures that can hopefully illustrate what I am trying to explain:



The plant will get so heavy or lean to far for light and start causing the homemade mesh pot to pop up and it buckles the top of the 5 gallon bucket lid.. there's a lot of weight being held when that happens and I am afraid it is only a matter of time before something bad happens. When I was applying a spray for bugs the plant got so heavy that it actually fell into the 5 gallon bucket through the lid.. but yet I have no idea on what to do to secure her that allows me to care for her.. or is redoing the lid the only option?

 

[JohnCee]

Hopefully, I'll be able to support her with the heavy buds she'll be producing. Any ideas on how I could achieve this?

 

[Hoare]

Hopefully, I'll be able to support her with the heavy buds she'll be producing. Any ideas on how I could achieve this?

upside down tomato cage?

 

[JohnCee]

upside down tomato cage?

That's not a bad idea.. I will have to see if I can get my hands on one just to test it out.

 

[Lil green leaves]

I have an idea.... drill two sets of small holes in the top of the cup in line with each other to fit a 1/2 inch rod or what ever you can find.... take to 12 inch rods and feed them through the holes and now the rods will support the cup witch holds the plant.

 

[Lil green leaves]

Forgot to say the rods will set on top of the lid....

 

[JohnCee]

I have an idea.... drill two sets of small holes in the top of the cup in line with each other to fit a 1/2 inch rod or what ever you can find.... take to 12 inch rods and feed them through the holes and now the rods will support the cup witch holds the plant.

Forgot to say the rods will set on top of the lid....

Interesting concept.. I wonder if there would be a way to secure the rods to the lid.

 

[Lil green leaves]

Interesting concept.. I wonder if there would be a way to secure the rods to the lid.

Yep get your self some cable clamps and place them over top of the rods and just drill holes in the lid to attach the cable clamps .... you will need a cable clamps on each end of each rod.... So four cable clamps and two rods....

 

[Lil green leaves]

Also your going to want to make sure you don't drill the holes right at to top of the cup.... because you still want some of the meat of the cup to be above the tops of the rods.... I would say like a 1/2 inch of cup above the top of the rod.