What's the max I could veg in a 3gal pot?

SmokyLungs

Well-Known Member
Plan on doing a long veg 2 months maybe a little longer before transplanting to a bigger pot what's the max I could veg in a 3 gal before transplanting to final pot 3 months or less?
 
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Carl Spackler

Well-Known Member
Unlikely that any strain will get root bound in 2 mos given a 3 gal pot. Some plants even prefer a slightly restricted root system despite popular opinion. Wilting within 2-3 days after a thorough watering is a good indicator that a larger pot is needed. I've kept a mother plant in a 2.5 gal smart pot for 8 mos of veg., then 2 more mos of flower. I simply pruned the roots back and added about1 gal of new soil at the 6 mos. mark with no stress problems whatsoever. Just make sure to keep the root mass moist for a few weeks after repotting while the roots fill in the new soil. Then, resume cycles of watering/feeding and allowing soil to dry out slightly. Should be good to go. Purple Maroc mother plant at roughly 9 mos. below. Same 2.5 gal pot.
 

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Craig1969SS

Well-Known Member
Unlikely that any strain will get root bound in 2 mos given a 3 gal pot. Some plants even prefer a slightly restricted root system despite popular opinion. Wilting within 2-3 days after a thorough watering is a good indicator that a larger pot is needed. I've kept a mother plant in a 2.5 gal smart pot for 8 mos of veg., then 2 more mos of flower. I simply pruned the roots back and added about1 gal of new soil at the 6 mos. mark with no stress problems whatsoever. Just make sure to keep the root mass moist for a few weeks after repotting while the roots fill in the new soil. Then, resume cycles of watering/feeding and allowing soil to dry out slightly. Should be good to go. Purple Maroc mother plant at roughly 9 mos. below. Same 2.5 gal pot.
Damn good information, thanks for passing it on
 

TheFuture

Well-Known Member
I have tried several types of pots back to back in the same grows and I have found the best pot is the SmartPot or Kangaroo Pouches. I grow my plants to exclusively 6-8 ounces (easier to control/manipulate smaller plants and shorter timeframe) and only use 2 gallon SmartPots at the moment.

These aren't great examples, really. They had been growing their vegetative lives under a 125w Fluorowing, so they stretched, oh how they stretched. Once put into flower, they got about 10 hours a day of 600w HPS and then one hour of 1000w HPS. At one point, the room had gotten to 104 F and all plants inside dried out and withered. Every plant felt like it was only the weight of the smartpot alone. This is the one drawback to smartpots. If you use them, they dry out very quickly and when emergencies happen, usually the water goes first. I have to water 2L per day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

The plants in the picture below have still not filled out the 2 gallon pots to the point it is a root brick. They were transplanted from 4" pot directly to the 2Gal and have been in flower now 38 days. Hopefully going to harvest at 47 to 52. If I would use bigger smartpots I would have a bigger plant, however I don't have the room for all that.

Papaya 1.jpg
I shoulda pruned that scraggler on the lower right, and now it has non-negligible weight.
Papaya 2.jpg
Not bad for vegging under crap light. Buds are medium density. I have been pulling them apart a little when rotating the plants to ensure some light gets in between those buds. A smidge of chlorosis is happening inside them but they are DRY and sticky =))

The coloring/deficiency in my leaves is because I flush all my plants regardless what anyone else says.

I highly recommend you try a 3gal smartpot. You can get probably double what these plants are right now in the same pot if they were vegged under 1000w and flowered under 1000w. In a 3gal I would say you can increase that by 25-50% or so.
 
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