4 Inches is all them girls need?

Cold$moke

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
If i dont like this chem gro id try mega crop then bak to raw if i did not like it.


My main reason for the chem grow is its a nice clear solution barely any color to it .
 
projectinfo

projectinfo

Well-Known Member
I need to make new mothers before I flower these. And I've got 18 going into flower now. And not enough lights lol

I could convert my mother tent. Or just remove it for now. But still. The heat in that room would endup fucked when everything is on full blast.
 
jonsnow399

jonsnow399

Well-Known Member
I read that pot plants prefer a taller, narrower container over a wide shallow one. What would be the minimum container height for best results?
 
Cold$moke

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
I once thought that as well till i ran a dwc in a 50 gal trash can to let the roots really hang.

I didnt notice any difference to the plants groing right next to them in nft tubes. So that kinda told me the results
but i did at one time think the height would help

Now im considering a big bare root nft table of sorts lol
 
Nugs1

Nugs1

Well-Known Member
jonsnow399 said:
I read that pot plants prefer a taller, narrower container over a wide shallow one. What would be the minimum container height for best results?
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I think this came from old thinking about the tap root, giving it a deeper place to go would help. But over the years this has been proven wrong. For example those 100 gallon fabric pots the commercial growers use in Cali aren't very deep at all. The current thought is about sqft of soil growing space. Just for reference the 100 gal pots are about 15 sq ft
 
jonsnow399

jonsnow399

Well-Known Member
Cold$moke said:
If you check out dr whitcomb he tells some cool stuff about roots systems
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Yeh,I got into some of his stuff a few years ago, i need to look again. I got some of his small root pots, they are hard as hell to fill with all the little spaces inside., I jammed them last time and couldn't get the roots out without ripping roots.
 
6ixtynin9

6ixtynin9

Well-Known Member
Cold$moke said:
If you check out dr whitcomb he tells some cool stuff about roots systems
Click to expand...
I've been using the 4 (well more like 3.5ish) inch method for the past 15 years and it works wonders. Never knew that Whitcomb had a 4" system but I found out about the method by accident. 15 years ago, I tried to jam pack as many 2 gallon pots in to my closet, as possible. It didn't fit all the plants. I had a roll of window screens sitting around so i came up with the idea to cut it up and turn it into pots. My closet was 2.5 feet by 4 feet and with 100 clones, the required size to fit all of them were 3 - 4 inch pots. I made the window screen pots, transplanted the clones and vegged for 3 weeks in the closet. When the outdoor season came around and it came time to "unpot" and transplant the clones into a 2nd pot to harden off outside, I noticed there weren't many tap roots at all. Lots of very fine lateral/feeder roots. I will never forget, It was the most fibrous, dense and fluffy root mass i've ever produced. This was where I also accidentally discovered how to "air prune" roots as well. Of course I never knew what these methods were, nor what it was called at the time. I just knew I accidentally discovered something that works (as far as root mass). I should have developed and sold "window screen" pots a long time ago. Would have become a thousandaire now, LOL, but always thought weed would never become legal. Who would've known. Anyways, plants grew stronger, more vigorous, and ultimately, better yield. I just recently, about 5 years ago, found out about Carl Whitcomb and yes the man know his shit. I was actually really surprised to see that he uses this method. I literally still use the window screen pot even to this day, and transplant into squat pots (short and wide) when enough roots have developed. This gives more room for the lateral roots to expands.
20180209_220647.jpg
 
jonsnow399

jonsnow399

Well-Known Member
6ixtynin9 said:
I've been using the 4 (well more like 3.5ish) inch method for the past 15 years and it works wonders. Never knew that Whitcomb had a 4" system but I found out about the method by accident. 15 years ago, I tried to jam pack as many 2 gallon pots in to my closet, as possible. It didn't fit all the plants. I had a roll of window screens sitting around so i came up with the idea to cut it up and turn it into pots. My closet was 2.5 feet by 4 feet and with 100 clones, the required size to fit all of them were 3 - 4 inch pots. I made the window screen pots, transplanted the clones and vegged for 3 weeks in the closet. When the outdoor season came around and it came time to "unpot" and transplant the clones into a 2nd pot to harden off outside, I noticed there weren't many tap roots at all. Lots of very fine lateral/feeder roots. I will never forget, It was the most fibrous, dense and fluffy root mass i've ever produced. This was where I also accidentally discovered how to "air prune" roots as well. Of course I never knew what these methods were, nor what it was called at the time. I just knew I accidentally discovered something that works (as far as root mass). I should have developed and sold "window screen" pots a long time ago. Would have become a thousandaire now, LOL, but always thought weed would never become legal. Who would've known. Anyways, plants grew stronger, more vigorous, and ultimately, better yield. I just recently, about 5 years ago, found out about Carl Whitcomb and yes the man know his shit. I was actually really surprised to see that he uses this method. I literally still use the window screen pot even to this day, and transplant into squat pots (short and wide) when enough roots have developed. This gives more room for the lateral roots to expands.
View attachment 4087261
Click to expand...
does whitcomb favor squat pots?
 
Cold$moke

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
I dont think the pot so much matters so long as you prune the first 4 inches of tap root to promote lateral branching.

I will start the next seeds in a way where i can just manually trim the root so it can go right into a system

Next time im only going to prune for about the first week or 3

But i had a bump in the road so i dont know if my seeds slowed because im a rockwool noob

Or because of the root pruning. Im betting it was me lol
 
6ixtynin9

6ixtynin9

Well-Known Member
jonsnow399 said:
does whitcomb favor squat pots?
Click to expand...
No, he mentions nothing about it. I favor squat pots. In my experience, when I grow in deep narrow pots, I get tall plants. When I switched to short wide pots, I get a shorter wider plant. I remember reading somewhere on Michigan State University's website that the way the root grows, influences the way the top grows. To an certain extent, plants mimic the shape of their pots. Makes perfect sense and i have seen this first hand. These are my DIY 8-9 gallon pots. Short squat bushy plants about 5 - 6 feet high, just how I like it. https://www.rollitup.org/t/best-soil-from-lowes.901731/page-4

This grow was done in narrow tall pots. Grew too tall (over 9 feet). I didn't like it. Post harvested, the space (soil) after 2 feet deep, had very little to no root growth. Wasted space and soil, as well as wasted water and nutrients.
8483874_6562782.jpg 20160923_185857-1.jpg
Maybe it's just my opinion but in short wide pots, 1. Millions of roots expanding laterally = more surface coverage and sturdier plant. 2. Water/food gets distributed alot more evenly across the root mass, which mean more efficient watering/feeding. 3. More shallow so water gets to root faster (i even found myself using less water, and in turn, nutrients). 4. Soil dries out faster which means more frequent watering/feeding, which also means faster growth. I believe, in a way, this all leads back to the 4 inch method. The theory behind it, I think, is to eliminate the tap root growth and encourage lateral feeder root growth for a more efficient robust root system.
 
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jonsnow399

jonsnow399

Well-Known Member
6ixtynin9 said:
No, he mentions nothing about it. I favor squat pots. In my experience, when I grow in deep narrow pots, I get tall plants. When I switched to short wide pots, I get a shorter wider plant. I remember reading somewhere on Michigan State University's website that the way the root grows, influences the way the top grows. To an certain extent, plants mimic the shape of their pots. Makes perfect sense and i have seen this first hand. These are my DIY 8-9 gallon pots. Short squat bushy plants about 5 - 6 feet high, just how I like it. https://www.rollitup.org/t/best-soil-from-lowes.901731/page-4

This grow was done in narrow tall pots. Grew too tall (over 9 feet). I didn't like it. Post harvested, the space (soil) after 2 feet deep, had very little to no root growth. Wasted space and soil, as well as wasted water and nutrients.
View attachment 4087296 View attachment 4087297
Maybe it's just my opinion but in short wide pots, 1. Millions of roots expanding laterally = more surface coverage and sturdier plant. 2. Water/food gets distributed alot more evenly across the root mass, which mean more efficient watering/feeding. 3. More shallow so water gets to root faster (i even found myself using less water, and in turn, nutrients). 4. Soil dries out faster which means more frequent watering/feeding, which also means faster growth. I believe, in a way, this all leads back to the 4 inch method. The theory behind it, I think, is to eliminate the tap root growth and encourage lateral feeder root growth for a more efficient robust root system.
Click to expand...
Sounds reasonable to me. I just got some phat sacks transplanter 1 gallons they are shorter than I usually use (6" high x 7" diameter) so maybe I will see a difference.
 
Cold$moke

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
The main thing is establishing a fiberous horizontal root system

After you get it built up then you can put It In whatever size pot you prefer
 
3

3GT

Well-Known Member
jonsnow399 said:
I'm gonna make some homemade fabric pots, what would be a good landscape fabric or other fabric for them?
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I use the supermarket polypropylene reusable bags ($0.50-$1) and cut/stitch them into fabric pots. Some have 2" of a plastic bottle bottom as a small Hempy reservoir.

Or I just use them as a 30L fabric pot as is.
 
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