Auto-flower pot size

[GentleCaveman]

Hey,

I wanted to ask if pot size matters with autos. Could growing in big pots cause plants growing short and small? Since they spend most of their time trying to fill the pot with roots instead of vegging would that effect plant size at the end? Bigger roots means bigger plant but considering they start flowering fairly early they won't have much time to use those roots on vegging? I was thinking on switching to a smaller pot next run and some opinion would be nice.

 

[MATTYMATT726]

Same as photos imo. No bigger than 2-3 gal for coco and 5 gal for soil. 1/2 gal of coco will still grow monsters with 2-3 feedings a day.

 

[CikaBika]

It matters.You have some big auto strains and they would profit from bigger pots..
I'm using universal size 15l air pots

 

[GentleCaveman]

So I'm growing living organic no-till style. I feel like I would need atleast 10g pot. I'm growing in 50lt pot right now and they did grow very short and bushy. Maybe because I didn't wait for soil to dry when I was vegging, so roots didn't have enough oxygen to grow? That could be the issue too, what do you think about that?

edit: https://www.rollitup.org/t/budget-no-till-grow-update-pics.983201/ you can see my plants here.

 

[Palmerrdgrower]

Hey,

I wanted to ask if pot size matters with autos. Could growing in big pots cause plants growing short and small? Since they spend most of their time trying to fill the pot with roots instead of vegging would that effect plant size at the end? Bigger roots means bigger plant but considering they start flowering fairly early they won't have much time to use those roots on vegging? I was thinking on switching to a smaller pot next run and some opinion would be nice.

I use 10 gallon fabric pots and get 4 to 6 oz dry per plant

 

[GentleCaveman]

I use 10 gallon fabric pots and get 4 to 6 oz dry per plant

I'm still gonna have good yields looking at my plants but I just would like to have little taller plants. Probably would be easier to work with and better for them also. Because they are so bushy there is literally branches of buds sticking to eachother. That has to be bad in some way.

In addition I will go with self wicking system too. So whatever size I choose to go with its gonna be sitting on some diy water resarvoir and its gonna be wicking water trough a net pot filled with peat or something.

 

[Natethenewb]

I put my 2 auto's in different pots to test the theory , 7gal fabric & a random plastic pot from homedepot, looks probably 5 gal. Pics from a few days ago they've exploded more since , will have to get a pic right at lights off.

 

[MATTYMATT726]

I put my 2 auto's in different pots to test the theory , 7gal fabric & a random plastic pot from homedepot, looks probably 5 gal. Pics from a few days ago they've exploded more since , will have to get a pic right at lights off.

Thays not really an accurate test. 1 is a air pot and other is plastic. It doesn't share the fact that air pots are way superior than solid plastic pot in root growth. 5 and 7 gal of plastic or air would be the right way to test.

 

[Natethenewb]

Thays not really an accurate test. 1 is a air pot and other is plastic. It doesn't share the fact that air pots are way superior than solid plastic pot in root growth. 5 and 7 gal of plastic or air would be the right way to test.

only had 5 7gals needed 1 more & grabbed that one lol. Heard alot of mixed reviews on pot sizes for autos, so thought eh I'll give it a try & see what worked best lol. Needless to say I need to downsize for my next run, under estimated how big these buggars got. 6 plants in a 4x2 is a tad tight.

 

[CikaBika]

So I'm growing living organic no-till style. I feel like I would need atleast 10g pot. I'm growing in 50lt pot right now and they did grow very short and bushy. Maybe because I didn't wait for soil to dry when I was vegging, so roots didn't have enough oxygen to grow? That could be the issue too, what do you think about that?

edit: https://www.rollitup.org/t/budget-no-till-grow-update-pics.983201/ you can see my plants here.

WooooooooooW 50l pots?' that more than enough!! I think everything above 30l for autoflowers is too much..
I know that if led is is too close can keep them short..Or maybe you grew small strain? I'm still duimbass for more complex growing questions so I can't really answer 2 why did they stayed short..
Take a look at dutch passion, dinafem they have some xxl auto strains, mephisto has few big also...
If you are in USA check fast buds..

P.s: most of auto strains are short or medium sizes ( 50-60cm), for example sour crack from mephisto..You can grow it in 230l pot, its small strain and you cant get more than 2 oz per plant..

Critical 2.0 dinafem

 

[GentleCaveman]

WooooooooooW 50l pots?' that more than enough!! I think everything above 30l for autoflowers is too much..
I know that if led is is too close can keep them short..Or maybe you grew small strain? I'm still duimbass for more complex growing questions so I can't really answer 2 why did they stayed short..
Take a look at dutch passion, dinafem they have some xxl auto strains, mephisto has few big also...
If you are in USA check fast buds..

P.s: most of auto strains are short or medium sizes ( 50-60cm), for example sour crack from mephisto..You can grow it in 230l pot, its small strain and you cant get more than 2 oz per plant..

There is 3 of them in that 50lt pot tho. And pot is folded down few inches so there is more like 40lt soil in there. They are Amnesia Autos from seedsman. I keep hearing different opinions on that pot size topic.

 

[GentleCaveman]

By the way I already have bunch of seeds, I'm not in USA but all my seeds are from FastBuds. I got 3x GSC, 3x Blue Dream'matic and 3x Zkittlez seeds from them. These Amnesias were freebies from seedsman and its my first grow so I decided to use them as a learning project before going into FastBuds ones.

 

[shushubandora]

If you have space than try bigger plants. Dutch passion have glueberry and think different.

 

[MR. CLAYS]

77 days into my first grow (ak47) happy frog soil in 3 gallon bags and these don't seem small. Next time I'm going 5 I think.

 

[GentleCaveman]

77 days into my first grow (ak47) happy frog soil in 3 gallon bags and these don't seem small. Next time I'm going 5 I think.

Yeah but you are probably feeding your plants yourself. Thats out of the option for me, my pot has to hold big enough ecosystem to feed itself. If you are feeding your plants with nutrients you can grow a huge plant in very tiny pots. These are two very different situations.

 

[mismos00]

Yeah but you are probably feeding your plants yourself. Thats out of the option for me, my pot has to hold big enough ecosystem to feed itself. If you are feeding your plants with nutrients you can grow a huge plant in very tiny pots. These are two very different situations.

So you already have to use big pots anyways? Oh, your question is will using bigger pots cause smaller plants for auto's, but you want to use smaller pots, and you understand you can grow large plants in small pots, but that's irrelevant because you need to use larger pots...

...can you start from the beginning again?

 

[GentleCaveman]

So you already have to use big pots anyways? Oh, your question is will using bigger pots cause smaller plants for auto's, but you want to use smaller pots, and you understand you can grow large plants in small pots, but that's irrelevant because you need to use larger pots...

...can you start from the beginning again?

I don't "have to" use anything. I'm just trying to find sweet-spot between small enough for fast root growth and big enough for forgiving ecosystem. Thing thats irreleveant is feeding my plants, so I'm not gonna grow any plants in 3 galon pots.

 

[mismos00]

I don't "have to" use anything. I'm just trying to find sweet-spot between small enough for fast root growth and big enough for forgiving ecosystem. Thing thats irreleveant is feeding my plants, so I'm not gonna grow any plants in 3 galon pots.

Oh, so it's not that you're not feeding your plants, but you're soil growing and not adding water soluble nutrients! Then you need to know the minimum amount of organic fertilizer an auto plant would need for it's life cycle I guess. If you want to use small pots than you would need stronger fertilizers, but it sounds like you don't want to change anything about your soil set up but you're just wondering if you could use a smaller pots? I think I've got it straight...

40L of soil for three pants? You do realize that that is equivalent to 3.33 gallons per plant which is already smaller than you said you could go... but you want to know if you can go smaller? I'm not being a dick, it just seems the problem isn't completely clear nor what your limitations are and what you are, and are not willing to do to modify things.

I would say 3 gallons is about the smallest you could get away with for an Auto plant if you're using liquid fertilizers. So if you're feeding it with soil you definitely would have to go bigger, and if you want to keep the pot as small as you can you need to use higher concentrated fertilizers. Root size is one of many factors and not the determining factor.

If you found your last run was small it sounds like it was either poor aeration in the soil (you said no amendments, no till... recipe for dense soil) which would be my top pick)... or not a big enough pot (3 plants in 10 gallons of soil is not enough), plus you didn't indicate what was in the soil.

Not sure I answered your question, but to your very first question... no, bigger pots could not in any way cause a smaller plant unless it causes you to overwater and you have poor drainage and you allow water to lay stagnant in the pot (which is not an issue with the pot size unless you don't want to improve your aeration or increase your pot size or add different fertilizers/amendments).

 

[GentleCaveman]

Oh, so it's not that you're not feeding your plants, but you're soil growing and not adding water soluble nutrients! Then you need to know the minimum amount of organic fertilizer an auto plant would need for it's life cycle I guess. If you want to use small pots than you would need stronger fertilizers, but it sounds like you don't want to change anything about your soil set up but you're just wondering if you could use a smaller pots? I think I've got it straight...

40L of soil for three pants? You do realize that that is equivalent to 3.33 gallons per plant which is already smaller than you said you could go... but you want to know if you can go smaller? I'm not being a dick, it just seems the problem isn't completely clear nor what your limitations are and what you are, and are not willing to do to modify things.

I would say 3 gallons is about the smallest you could get away with for an Auto plant if you're using liquid fertilizers. So if you're feeding it with soil you definitely would have to go bigger, and if you want to keep the pot as small as you can you need to use higher concentrated fertilizers. Root size is one of many factors and not the determining factor.

If you found your last run was small it sounds like it was either poor aeration in the soil (you said no amendments, no till... recipe for dense soil) which would be my top pick)... or not a big enough pot (3 plants in 10 gallons of soil is not enough), plus you didn't indicate what was in the soil.

Not sure I answered your question, but to your very first question... no, bigger pots could not in any way cause a smaller plant unless it causes you to overwater and you have poor drainage and you allow water to lay stagnant in the pot (which is not an issue with the pot size unless you don't want to improve your aeration or increase your pot size or add different fertilizers/amendments).

I don't think you have enough knowledge about no-till and I don't feel like explaining bunch of stuff to get help from someone I just explained bunch of stuff to. So I'm good buddy, thanks for looking out.

 

[mismos00]

I don't think you have enough knowledge about no-till and I don't feel like explaining bunch of stuff to get help from someone I just explained bunch of stuff to. So I'm good buddy, thanks for looking out.

Fair enough... just remember to divide the volume of your medium by the number of plants you are growing in it. You called 3 gallons a very tiny pot and that's exactly how much space you gave to your own plants... and you're using soil!