A question about pot size.

Hi there,

Im using 8 inch square pots in my vegging cabinet (i beleive they are 2 litre / 1/2 gallon) and i cant get anything taller in there as this would limit the height of my plants too much.

My flowering cabinet only allows me to grow plants upto 3 1/2 feet tall including the pot, so up until now ive used these 8 inch pots and a fair bit of topping to keep them short and bushy.

Ive noticed now that my plants still in the vegging cab are totally pot bound and the only point at which i could repot would be the day they go into the flowering cab.....my question is.......will the root systems fill the bigger pots once they are in the flowering stage? or once you go to flower does root growth slow down or stop? (making the repot pointless).

Any help from peoples more knowledgeable than me would be greatly appreciated!!

mount4inmatt said:

..will the root systems fill the bigger pots once they are in the flowering stage? or once you go to flower does root growth slow down or stop? !

Click to expand...

they'll grow on, not with the vigor in vegging though, that is the last time I repot, the week before I switch to 12/12.

they will fill more but u really need bigger sooner, lst the plants, i grow in less height than you and it can work out much better, keep those buds level in light.how about wider pots?

I have a good deal of experience with very small pots through the entire grow,i use as small a pot as im comfortable with & size is a main concern in my grow op.

Now dig this,i want you to think about this & not rush to make a judgement,pot size is relevant to root growth,we all know this,but ask yourself this,what is the main function of the root system,the short answer is to deliever water,oxygen & nutrients to the plant so it can build itself.

With that being said & the main function of the root mass being taken into consideration the size of the root mass becomes less relevant,with a smaller root mass the plant needs watering more often,it also needs nutrients supplied via watering more often than with a large container grow because the smaller amount of soil in the pot gets its natural nutrients deprived very quickly.

Before we continue think about hydro growing for a minute,hydro grows faster than soil,infact it grows much faster over soil,one of the main reasons hydro is so much faster vs soil is the constant delievery of fresh oxygen to the root mass via nute solution,there is a massive benifit to having small pots in soil grows & that is increased oxygen delievery to the root mass due to more frequent waterings,smaller pots that are cared for properly will supply more oxygen to the plant which in turn allow the plant faster growth,i have proven this in my grows.

As long as you can nail down a working plan for fertilization pot size becomes less & less relevant to the overall plant health,root bound is only relevant to an extent,the bad ffects of being root bound can easily be countered as said above by increased feeding & watering.

My last grow was done using very small containers where i grew 3 plus feet monsters that yeilded an ounce to 1.5 ounces per plant,not including hash buds that were never weighed,if i weighed those lil shit buds i'd of had over 2 ounces a plant on atleast half the plants.

Dont worry about root bound as it's not as big an issue as most people think,your roots will continue to grow & fill out at all times,i transplant a week or so before i flip them over into bud so they get used to the new soil & thats it.

Look up an old thread of FDD's on this site titled "It's all bullshit",in this thread there is conclusive proof that root bound is not a major factor in plant health or yeild,i learned much from that thread & apply that knowledge in every grow since.

ok many thanks guys......some good info and ideas there!

I feel a joint and some serious thinking time are in order!!

Panhead, good post. Root bound is a bit of a myth.