7 inch pots?

Hi everyone, a friend and fellow grower called in to see me to-day, he told me about something that happened to his plants.

He got his plants new from his usual supplier, who had taken cuttings from his mother plant and grown them on in small pots, not in compost but in that stuff that looks like fibre glass insulation, i forget the proper name for it, but i'm sure you will know what its called.

That's the way, he has always bought his plants, so there is no difference there, but he decided to get an extra four plants this time while intending to buy four new large full sized pots for them. For one reason or another he was not able to get out and buy the new large plant pots, so he put them in to 7 inch pots as a temporary measure.
He has been so busy with other things that the four plants stayed in the smaller pots, but still under the grow lights with the other plants in the large pots. I think he said that those plants had all been in the grow tent for just over a week, and strangely, the three plants in the smaller pots, had grown to twice the size of the plants in the larger pots.


On the two previous occasions that i have grown these plants, i just put them straight in to the full sized pots as advised by another friend of mine, so i have been wondering how you guys do yours?

Do you put your grown cuttings straight in to full sized pots or in to 7 inch pots first and then in to full sized pots when the roots start coming out of the bottom of those?

I don't do cuttings, but I always go progressively bigger in pot size as the plant grows. It seems to make a better root ball.

It would appear that your way is the correct way smokey, with my next crop, i will do half one way and half the other way as a comparison and see what the difference is.

Could i ask, how many times you pot them off, before you actually put them in the final large pot?


Does anyone else use smaller pots before they put them into the final large pot?

normally what you do is take your cuttings usualy there in 1" rockwool or 1" trays of soil then plant them into 4" pots for like a week then into your final size pots depending on your powr used for instance thats what i did trans planted like 12 days ago and heres pics of them today they didnt stress just grew way it suppose
to show you before and after lol when you take a clone and transplant them into final size pots off the bat chances you will have a few die and many stressed

DrFever said:

normally what you do is take your cuttings usualy there in 1" rockwool or 1" trays of soil then plant them into 4" pots for like a week then into your final size pots depending on your powr used for instance thats what i did trans planted like 12 days ago and heres pics of them today they didnt stress just grew way it suppose
to show you before and after lol when you take a clone and transplant them into final size pots off the bat chances you will have a few die and many stressed

Click to expand...

That's the stuff DrFever rockwool, i knew some one would know the name, so the correct way is to pot them off in to small pots first, it certainly seems to make a big difference.

Could i ask what type of plants your growing?

the reason you use progressively larger pots is due to root developement. in seeds there is a tap root, and with cuttings a series of main roots or a single main root. the main/tap root searches for the bottom or an edge of the container before branching out and establishing itself, at this point a plant begins vigorous growth, usually signifying the begining or the vegging stage. most likely the plants in smaller pots were able to acheive this sooner and therefore began upward growth sooner.
if a plant is first grown in a smaller container the taproot anchors sooner and the roots establish a ball which when transplanted will form a more stable root system than a plant grown from seed/ cutting in a large pot.
do not, however, allow the plant to outgrow the pot, as a root bound plant will never grow to the size it could have been.

namtih024 said:

the reason you use progressively larger pots is due to root developement. in seeds there is a tap root, and with cuttings a series of main roots or a single main root. the main/tap root searches for the bottom or an edge of the container before branching out and establishing itself, at this point a plant begins vigorous growth, usually signifying the begining or the vegging stage. most likely the plants in smaller pots were able to acheive this sooner and therefore began upward growth sooner.
if a plant is first grown in a smaller container the taproot anchors sooner and the roots establish a ball which when transplanted will form a more stable root system than a plant grown from seed/ cutting in a large pot.
do not, however, allow the plant to outgrow the pot, as a root bound plant will never grow to the size it could have been.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that info namtih024, its greatly appreciated.

I am having the same problem with this new batch of plants, the leaves are turning brown again and starting from the left hand side of the tent again. I have take out the first two plants and destroyed them in hope of saving the others, but the middle two plants are starting to go brown also. Does anyone have any-more ideas about this occursed problem? If this lot go tits up, i'm going back to buying it again,this has cost me a fortune already.

I am having the same problem with this new batch of plants, they are just two weeks old now and the leaves are turning brown again and starting from the left hand side of the tent again. I have taken out the first two plants and destroyed them in hope of saving the others, but the middle two plants are starting to go brown also.

Does anyone have any-more ideas about this accursed problem?

If this lot go tits up i'm packing in this growing lark, its cost more to grow the stuff than to buy it on the street.