Pot size - Bigger Isn't Always Better.

nice thts what im talking about rt on sicc

I agree with the first post. If conditions are optimal, and you have a good medium, the pot size has very little effect on what size plant you can grow and how much it can yield. Its been proven over and over. FDD has a thread with a monster warlock in a 3 gallon pot I think. Some people may still disagree, But hey, who am I kidding?

I dont think bigger pots necessarily mean bigger plants. If you veg a plant for two weeks then immediately flower, I doubt you'll see much difference between a 2 gallon pot versus a 5 gallon pot. Ive read that roots stop growing after 3 weeks into flower, and from the looks of my pots there are no roots growing out of the bottom of them after going from 1.5 to 3 gallon pots, and Im 3 weeks into flower.

If you have extra time to veg, then I think a larger pot would benefit you, but a 5 week veg may not be enough time for a 5 gallon pot to really matter.

grow in 10 and 20 gallon pots then you'll REALLY notice a difference..if u got the room to do it fuck it and if u got the wattage and lumens then you'll have a monster

daleh717 said:

bigger pots = bigger plants

Click to expand...

Just not true, a plant grown well in small pot will out perform a plant grown badly in a big pot, no doubt about that.

HomeGrown420baby said:

grow in 10 and 20 gallon pots then you'll REALLY notice a difference..if u got the room to do it fuck it and if u got the wattage and lumens then you'll have a monster

Click to expand...

I admit, a plant can outgrow its pot but in Mj's case it only needs a small compact root ball to develop a decent size, if you want to grow a tree then, yes you may need more root space but i've seen normal sized indica plants grown in 15gallon tubs and it just caused problems in the grow room, flushing a pot that size is not easy, gets very heavy when wet.

I also saw those particular plants transplanted from 1 gal pots, i dont think it increased the rate of growth much, if any after transplant.

Have a look round, some people have grown some massive plants in relitively small pots.

hey, first post.... yay me.
im setting a sort of SOG set up with 4 ft of available grow height im planning on setting up either 12 or 16 pots being 2.2 litres (half gallon) each and 20cm wide .
taking table, res, and hps shade into consideration, i will end up with only 2 ft? actual height, so will LST and maybe supercrop them.
anyway will those small pots give adequate root space for the ladies or should i cut down on the number and go for bigger pots?
thanks.

celicaboy666 said:

hey, first post.... yay me.
im setting a sort of SOG set up with 4 ft of available grow height im planning on setting up either 12 or 16 pots being 2.2 litres (half gallon) each and 20cm wide .
taking table, res, and hps shade into consideration, i will end up with only 2 ft? actual height, so will LST and maybe supercrop them.
anyway will those small pots give adequate root space for the ladies or should i cut down on the number and go for bigger pots?
thanks.

Click to expand...

I just transplanted some 18" plants that vegged for 4 weeks in 1 gallon pots, and they were getting pretty rootbound. I don't think 1/2 gallon pots are going to be big enough for 2 foot plants. You should be able to get away with 1 gallon pots, but that's going to be pushing it too.

jesus of Cannabis said:

I humbly disagree. my autos go in a 3 gallon and my regulars go into 5 gallons.

Click to expand...

when it comes to autoflowering plants,I have found they need a deep container.I have best results using breadbags.I have tried everything from small containers up to 5 gallon paint buckets and for me at least,it seems they need a deep container as soon as they break ground. have been playing w/ a LR2/NYCdiesel cross & the only way to get them to grow over a foot high is to get them into 12 inches of soil asap.waiting and stepping up containers as they grow didnt help & width of the pot didnt seem to mater.my guess is they throw down a deep taproot & how far it gets determines how tall the plant will grow.
when it comes to regular plants,I just stopped by my mentors place last night & he had a batch ready start flowering.they were in 1/2 gallon pots & we switched them to 1 gallon.all were between 2-3 feet and had been trimmed like a lolipop.he has grown for about 30 yrs & produces the best bud I have ever seen. all organic in soil in 1 gallon pots.it beats the best shit coming out of California's med shops hands down.

if you aren't going over 3-4 feet, 3 gal is about right because 1 gallon = 1 ' of growth healthily..

doesnt a seed as to a clone hav to do with it??? seeds hav moor roots geeranly

this is a perfect thread for my problem! im currently growing 3 plants in a closet under a 400watt hps (i switch to mh bulb for veg) so i basically vegged my one bagseed sativa for 3.5 weeks in a half gallon container than transplanted to a 2.5 gallon container. she is 4 weeks and 5 days into flowering. looks beautiful . [Sativas flower longer] now!! there is no room to top up soil it is extreamly compact ands roots still continue to pop through the surface of the soil. ALSO. my other 2 bagseed plants. i think are indica. are almost one month old. have been in 12/12 from seed and are in 2 gallon pots. they look awsome. doing great. BUT ive noticed a couple roots pop through the soil already. my question is. what exactly should i do here? i cannot transplant. (dont have any more pots available) if i just let the roots touch air for long enough so the tips will die off, will it stop the roots from growing? or effect my plant?

I would say it was more accurate to state that the pot size you had was more than sufficient for the amount of veg time given.

Bigger pots do - bigger plants as long you account for the extra root space with extra veg time.

It's a maths sum, number of watts of light, number of plants, growth height, floor space area, pot size, veg time.

if the number of watts of light are the same, and so is the number of plants and growth height and floor space and veg time, then changing the pot size will make very little difference.

Everything is relative.

We need a whole lot more posts like this. Simple experimentation and observation, and sharing it. +Rep

canadian.bud21 said:

this is a perfect thread for my problem! im currently growing 3 plants in a closet under a 400watt hps (i switch to mh bulb for veg) so i basically vegged my one bagseed sativa for 3.5 weeks in a half gallon container than transplanted to a 2.5 gallon container. she is 4 weeks and 5 days into flowering. looks beautiful . [Sativas flower longer] now!! there is no room to top up soil it is extreamly compact ands roots still continue to pop through the surface of the soil. ALSO. my other 2 bagseed plants. i think are indica. are almost one month old. have been in 12/12 from seed and are in 2 gallon pots. they look awsome. doing great. BUT ive noticed a couple roots pop through the soil already. my question is. what exactly should i do here? i cannot transplant. (dont have any more pots available) if i just let the roots touch air for long enough so the tips will die off, will it stop the roots from growing? or effect my plant?

Click to expand...

Anyone? PLZ?

it all depends on the light... i experienced the same thing with CFLs, but under a 1000w light, the pot size makes a huge difference

canadian.bud21 said:

Anyone? PLZ?

Click to expand...

Air pruned roots shouldn't effect the rest of the roots. I'm using 3 gal Smart Pots. They're made of cloth and the roots poke through and die. Plants are going gangbusters.

I would like to see side by side grow comparisons in that smart pot vs. reg. plastic pot if anyone knows of one or journal? That kind of comparison could be very beneficial to pot size/grow. If the smart pot is a better use for root growth if might allow using a smaller then normal pot for space concerns or a bigger pot with much bigger growth.

Relaxed said:

I would like to see side by side grow comparisons in that smart pot vs. reg. plastic pot if anyone knows of one or journal? That kind of comparison could be very beneficial to pot size/grow. If the smart pot is a better use for root growth if might allow using a smaller then normal pot for space concerns or a bigger pot with much bigger growth.

Click to expand...

i used smart pots vs. plastic pots just last summer. I threw my smart pots away. The fucker dont drain for shit. I hate em. Plus, if u set them on dirt outdoors, theyll grow roots threw the bottom into the groung. That really causes biggggg problems. Maybe I didnt know to tweak them then. I didnt see any better results useing the smartpots. hope that helps

I think what happens with 'micropots', is that after the rootball dominates or the soil becomes compacted, it becomes almost a hand-watered soil-based hydro grow.

Perhaps each particular strain has optimum pot sizings, dependent on life cycle.

My plants are 5 weeks old from seed, and are in 1/2 gallon pots. What do you guys think? I'll transplant some of em into 3 gallon pots and see how they compare with the others in growth rate.