2 gallon pots ?

budLIFE60 · Apr 17, 2015

So im planning on flowering my new cotton candy clones in 2 gallon pots this cycle. Usually i do 10+ gal pots but am switching things up to get better use out of my 600 watt light. I plan on fitting 9-16 plants each in 2 gal pots in my 3x3 tent. Having never flowered in such small pots i was wondering what a good veg time would be? I was thinking about 1-2 weeks? Anyone flower in to 2 gallon pots or have any suggestions?

Peace & love

kali kid greenthumb · Apr 17, 2015

budLIFE60 said:
So im planning on flowering my new cotton candy clones in 2 gallon pots this cycle. Usually i do 10+ gal pots but am switching things up to get better use out of my 600 watt light. I plan on fitting 9-16 plants each in 2 gal pots in my 3x3 tent. Having never flowered in such small pots i was wondering what a good veg time would be? I was thinking about 1-2 weeks? Anyone flower in to 2 gallon pots or have any suggestions?

Peace & love

I just harvested in 2 gal smart pots the key is a short veg time and try to make sure its a true 8 week strain I made the mistake of not training properly and letting it veg too long so I got a good amount of popcorn nugs. Ive done good results with 5 week veg from rooted clone and 8 weeks flower and depending on your medium your going to have to water more frequently I hope you have a drip system set up you most likely need it ,I'm using coco and I water 3x a day 1 minute each gives about 10-15% run off every time.

The reasoning I get from small pots is you get to water more often(force feed in a sense) and a higher plant count as well as short veg time. The most I've seen off 1 plant in a 2gal air pot was 256g but of course it was blue dream but still thats evidence to me you can get a nice harvest from a 2 gal. Hope this helps!

caherbgrower · Apr 17, 2015

The key to a great yield is having a full canopy. You can achieve that with small containers but you will have to stay vigilant with your watering. Less substrate = less available water. If you're running one strain only in that size tent I would grow one plant in SCROG to max it out.

budLIFE60 · Apr 17, 2015

kali kid greenthumb said:
I just harvested in 2 gal smart pots the key is a short veg time and try to make sure its a true 8 week strain I made the mistake of not training properly and letting it veg too long so I got a good amount of popcorn nugs. Ive done good results with 5 week veg from rooted clone and 8 weeks flower and depending on your medium your going to have to water more frequently I hope you have a drip system set up you most likely need it ,I'm using coco and I water 3x a day 1 minute each gives about 10-15% run off every time.

The reasoning I get from small pots is you get to water more often(force feed in a sense) and a higher plant count as well as short veg time. The most I've seen off 1 plant in a 2gal air pot was 256g but of course it was blue dream but still thats evidence to me you can get a nice harvest from a 2 gal. Hope this helps!

Hey thanks this was Very helpful! I plan on running some 7-8 weekers and some sativas so ill plan on a shorter veg for the more sativa dominant strains. I hadnt really thought about the extra waterings and how they will help to improve yield thats interesting. Although you could argue that with bigger plants you tend to water In greater quanities? Will be fun to test out. I water by hand so i will be sure to keep a close watch on my plants my organic super soil does well with retaining water. Was that your blue dream? Thats a crazy huge yield.

budLIFE60 · Apr 17, 2015

caherbgrower said:
The key to a great yield is having a full canopy. You can achieve that with small containers but you will have to stay vigilant with your watering. Less substrate = less available water. If you're running one strain only in that size tent I would grow one plant in SCROG to max it out.

Hey thanks I plan on filling all space available. Ill be more than one strain each cycle though and will be watching my plants constantly. probably be doing SCROG in my spare closet. I like the sog so i can have more variety of strains as of right now my space is limited

ogreballerina · Apr 17, 2015

I regularly grow in small pots..anything from a Solo cup , 1 gallon, 2 gallon etc. ( Up to 100 gallon )
Never had any nute / growth problems.
Just start flowering them small

kali kid greenthumb · Apr 17, 2015

budLIFE60 said:
Hey thanks this was Very helpful! I plan on running some 7-8 weekers and some sativas so ill plan on a shorter veg for the more sativa dominant strains. I hadnt really thought about the extra waterings and how they will help to improve yield thats interesting. Although you could argue that with bigger plants you tend to water In greater quanities? Will be fun to test out. I water by hand so i will be sure to keep a close watch on my plants my organic super soil does well with retaining water. Was that your blue dream? Thats a crazy huge yield.

Its more in late flower you have to really watch honestly I sometimes do 2x feed a day in early flower then to 3x day in late flower but I'm in coco ,I haven't had the chance to try that super soil out definitely interested.

The blue dream wasn't mine but I worked in a commercial grow for awhile working directly with the plants it was in a 4x8 tray 21 plants total and final harvest was 6.2 lbs all in 2 gallon air pots, coco ,4x600 hps, that 256 was biggest of them all.

budLIFE60 · Apr 18, 2015

ogreballerina said:
I regularly grow in small pots..anything from a Solo cup , 1 gallon, 2 gallon etc. ( Up to 100 gallon )
Never had any nute / growth problems.
Just start flowering them small

Thanks much for the info all good to know.

Just curious seeing how youve have success in both what do you prefer small pots or large ones?

undercovergrow · Apr 18, 2015

started out growing strains i hadn't grown before in small air-pots (one- or two-gallon) and am using three-gallon air-pots now and am moving up to five-gallon soon. the smaller pots require a lot more work keeping them happy with water and nutrients. with that said, i wouldn't veg anything longer than three or four weeks, at most. i would also keep them in a small container until you put them to flower and then put them in their final, small container to help keep them manageable.
good luck with your grow! :leaf:

budLIFE60 · Apr 18, 2015

kali kid greenthumb said:
Its more in late flower you have to really watch honestly I sometimes do 2x feed a day in early flower then to 3x day in late flower but I'm in coco ,I haven't had the chance to try that super soil out definitely interested.

The blue dream wasn't mine but I worked in a commercial grow for awhile working directly with the plants it was in a 4x8 tray 21 plants total and final harvest was 6.2 lbs all in 2 gallon air pots, coco ,4x600 hps, that 256 was biggest of them all.

If you ever get a chance to try it i highly recommend it. The taste and smell is superb. Though i hear good thinks about coco have wanted to try. What line of nutes do you use with it?

Wow thats quite an incredible yield! Wish my blue dream could yield that in 2 gals. What kind of training did you do?

budLIFE60 · Apr 18, 2015

undercovergrow said:
started out growing strains i hadn't grown before in small air-pots (one- or two-gallon) and am using three-gallon air-pots now and am moving up to five-gallon soon. the smaller pots require a lot more work keeping them happy with water and nutrients. with that said, i wouldn't veg anything longer than three or four weeks, at most. i would also keep them in a small container until you put them to flower and then put them in their final, small container to help keep them manageable.
good luck with your grow!

What kind of air pots do you use? Im not real familiar with those havent tried any myself.
The watering shouldn't be much of an issue i can put as much time needed into my plants as they require! I was thinkin of starting off with a 2 week veg to start off and see how that goes. Thanks for the tips! Best of luck with yours as well!

undercovergrow · Apr 18, 2015

budLIFE60 said:
What kind of air pots do you use? Im not real familiar with those havent tried any myself.
The watering shouldn't be much of an issue i can put as much time needed into my plants as they require! I was thinkin of starting off with a 2 week veg to start off and see how that goes. Thanks for the tips! Best of luck with yours as well!

superoots air-pots

i have liked using them; they are convenient to store, and they can be pushed close to each other which helps save space, but gnats were very hard to deal with and it was very hard to learn to not under- or over-water the plants with these pots.

two week veg sounds perfect.

mr. childs · Apr 18, 2015

airpots are great, hard to over water imho. i use the 1 liter pots. i've never had a bug problem, but with your gnat problem how did you correct it, seems as if it would be easy, with all of the holes to saturate.

undercovergrow · Apr 18, 2015

mr. childs said:
airpots are great, hard to over water imho. i use the 1 liter pots. i've never had a bug problem, but with your gnat problem how did you correct it, seems as if it would be easy, with all of the holes to saturate.

the holes were giving the gnats more places to hide...still battling a remnant population even though i've been letting the girls get droopy dried out so i've got nematodes being delivered to finish destroying the population. i tried BTI along with stickies and reducing watering, but it just seems to be controlling them and i want them wiped out. the recycled soil i was cooking must have been infested with larvae and i didn't notice until they were in the flower room.

kali kid greenthumb · Apr 19, 2015

budLIFE60 said:
If you ever get a chance to try it i highly recommend it. The taste and smell is superb. Though i hear good thinks about coco have wanted to try. What line of nutes do you use with it?

Wow thats quite an incredible yield! Wish my blue dream could yield that in 2 gals. What kind of training did you do?

I personally use Botanicare pure blend grow/bloom for my base then protekt ,cal-mag ,biocozyme,and the rest of Growmore nutrients additives. With that blue dream harvest at that shop we used GH line using the lucas formula,floralicious ,flora blend ,protekt,GH cal-mag as far as training we just topped, defoliated the bottoms or any little bud sites not getting direct light and tied up the buds for support.

bigsteve · Apr 20, 2015

Problems ahead. A tent 3 x 3 should flower maybe 4 plants. I have a perpetual grow and need 3-4 times as much flowering floor space as for vegging. If you are really thinking of vegging less than 2 weeks and putting 9-16 plants in a small tent you need someone to shake you awake. Here's how to show you your folly -- go into your tent and line up a grid with 16 empty solo cups. Spread them out into a 4 x 4 formation and take a step back. Do you really think 16 plants would thrive in that tiny space. Try vegging then flowering 4 plants and see how much room you have to work with.

Good luck, BigSteve.

budLIFE60 · Apr 20, 2015

undercovergrow said:
superoots air-pots

i have liked using them; they are convenient to store, and they can be pushed close to each other which helps save space, but gnats were very hard to deal with and it was very hard to learn to not under- or over-water the plants with these pots.

two week veg sounds perfect.

Awesome will be trying these out in the future!

budLIFE60 · Apr 20, 2015

bigsteve said:
Problems ahead. A tent 3 x 3 should flower maybe 4 plants. I have a perpetual grow and need 3-4 times as much flowering floor space as for vegging. If you are really thinking of vegging less than 2 weeks and putting 9-16 plants in a small tent you need someone to shake you awake. Here's how to show you your folly -- go into your tent and line up a grid with 16 empty solo cups. Spread them out into a 4 x 4 formation and take a step back. Do you really think 16 plants would thrive in that tiny space. Try vegging then flowering 4 plants and see how much room you have to work with.

Good luck, BigSteve.

Ok i agree 16 plants is a bit of a stretch in 2 gallons pots but 9 plants thats 1 foot by 1 foot square area for each plant that could easily be achieved. I will have to tune in on the veg time a bit with practice but it should be no problem.

If i vegged and flowered only four plants in this area with only 2 week veg i would have room left over. Ive done 4 plants in a 3x4 area with almost 2 months of veg all in 10+ gallons without any issues.

Appreciate the concern. Ill be testing plants in a 2 gallon pot with 2 week veg before my first full run. Thanks

bigsteve · Apr 23, 2015

9 plants is doable. Some suggestions --

* I use some 7-inch square plastic pots that look like berry pots and are one gallon size. You want something like that.with the pot as compact as possible. A long tall skinny pot will try to grow tall and skinny plants. You want skinny but not tall. To keep them short here is a trick I came up with. When I transplant from the solo cup to the 7-inch pot I dig the hole extra deep and bury 2 inches or so of stem that would otherwise be above ground. Helps keep the plant shorter.
* Do not try to FIM or top them. You want to encourage single cola straight up and down plants, eh? Cutting on the main stem will often lead to more than one main cola so avoid that.
* Once the 9 plants are settled in their flowering room take some time to make sure they are getting close to the same amount of light. Then leave the plants in the same place and do not move or turn the pots. That kind of movement will lead to swirly leaves that have smaller (and slower) bud development.
* Consider using a sog net to keep height uniform.
* Make sure you have thought through your HVAC siyuation. How are you going to keep the ladies cool as warm weather approaches?

Good luck, BigSteve.

budLIFE60 · Apr 23, 2015

bigsteve said:
9 plants is doable. Some suggestions --

* I use some 7-inch square plastic pots that look like berry pots and are one gallon size. You want something like that.with the pot as compact as possible. A long tall skinny pot will try to grow tall and skinny plants. You want skinny but not tall. To keep them short here is a trick I came up with. When I transplant from the solo cup to the 7-inch pot I dig the hole extra deep and bury 2 inches or so of stem that would otherwise be above ground. Helps keep the plant shorter.
* Do not try to FIM or top them. You want to encourage single cola straight up and down plants, eh? Cutting on the main stem will often lead to more than one main cola so avoid that.
* Once the 9 plants are settled in their flowering room take some time to make sure they are getting close to the same amount of light. Then leave the plants in the same place and do not move or turn the pots. That kind of movement will lead to swirly leaves that have smaller (and slower) bud development.
* Consider using a sog net to keep height uniform.
* Make sure you have thought through your HVAC siyuation. How are you going to keep the ladies cool as warm weather approaches?

Good luck, BigSteve.

Great thanks alot for the tips, i will be looking into better pots once i get it up and going. Right now alls i have is some round 2 gallon buckets with handles from lowes to test out. Height shouldnt be too much of an issue my tent im using is about 7 foot and my closet is 9 foot.
I dont plan on any topping if i do anything ill stick with LST and tie em down. Ill focus on one main cola though to start.
Ive thought about a net thats a good idea i may have to try that or ill build some benches to put the not so stretchy ones onto to keep an even canopy.
I just invested in a nice ac unit for time being i installed that cools up to 10x10 foot area that works very well. Later on when i move my plants to a shed im building i will get a ductless mini split heat pump for both heating and cooling.

Thanks bigsteve!

2 gallon pots ?

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member