root bound at 14 days after flowering

Hey all ;
ive started a bag seed grow in mid September and got one female out of 5 plants even thought i got a big pot (32cm diameter) i got root bound because of bad watering habits. my question is can i cut some large holes on the lower sides of the pot and immerse the pot in another one way bigger and filled with good soil and perlite?? can i reduce the stress this way or a normal transplant is the same?
thank a lot for your help guys

I haven't done it that way, however I have cut away the lower half of the pot and set into a bigger one. Don't do it when soil is dry though, you risk exposing the roots.

thanks a lot man, but how did u get it without the soil "falling" from the lower part?
my idea of the holes was done specifically not to alter the base of the soil, u think it's useless?
thanks

Hey, my pot was really bound, so the roots held together with the soil intact, aided by the moisture. I can imagine your idea might work, not sure about the tap root though... another cut-out in the bottom?

i would just do a normal transplant, you'll be perfectly fine, especially if your plant has a very well developed root ball, which yours will be if it is root bound. i wait till the plants need to be watered to transplant. really as long as you are careful you shouldnt notice more than a day of shock at most. I dont see any the vast majority of the time. it's easy, youll do fine.

yes and on the sides. i dunno if u ever saw the pots they use for hydro and aeroponic systems, theyre usually all striped on the sides with longitudinal rectangular holes close to each others and i'll probably have to cut the bottom too as u said. but i'm more tempted to use your technique. i'm doing all this to reduce the stress. i dont know if its logical or if im tripping to be very frank

thanks darkdestruction420, just saw ur message after i posted mine
what are the signs of shock ur talking abt btw?

slowed/no noticeable growth.

yeah, being that you are only two weeks in, I would go with the straight-forward transplant, as dark said. I only did the cutting off thing when the plant was at five weeks and had vegged way too long.

it's actually 14 days after the flowering state began. the plant is a month and a week its a big promising one too pictures will follow

ok! the transplant is done! the new pot is now of 50cms with a soil ph5.7 and the water is around 7.5. one question tho , while transplanting i might've messed up a few roots, will the plant survive it? also got some droopy leafs in one side of the lower plant

badKarrot said:

ok! the transplant is done! the new pot is now of 50cms with a soil ph5.7 and the water is around 7.5. one question tho , while transplanting i might've messed up a few roots, will the plant survive it? also got some droopy leafs in one side of the lower plant

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Roots will be fine, I regularly trim/score roots, no big deal.

What IS a big deal is that 5.7 soil pH. Waaaay too low. You need to snag some dolomite lime at Lowes or HD and do a top dress to avoid lockout down the road. pHing the water isn't going to cut it.

~$3-$5 for a 40lb bag, it's a cheap and easy fix. One application will do the trick. 2tbl/gallon of mix will set you right.

Wet

Dam rootbound suxs ass, its very similar to nute lock up. both destroy ur plant but being root bound can be less devestating if caught early on. thats why i grow in smart pots. And when it comes down to the ph situation ur need a ph meter man. its really important. just think of it this way, u can water ur plants with good ph'ed water or acidic water...which ur want ur plants to drink?

Just out of curiosity, what causes a plant to become rootbound? I've seen pictures of huge plants in fairly small pots that are perfectly healthy and then smaller plants in the same size pot that are supposedly rootbound. What causes it?

Just a guess on my part, but I would think it's when they need to search to much for food/water. It is a balancing act though, as the bigger a root system, the more capable it is of supplying those nutrients/water. Which often leads to more robust buds/plants.

thanks a lot for the advice wetdog, can u plz just give me a small explanation of what u mean by the top dress?

usually a plant gets rootbound because the area provided to it is too small and the roots reaches more for nutrients. in my case however, it's related to a bad watering habit: usually u should wait for the soil to become dry before watering it (the best way to check that is to stick ur finger in the soil 5cms deep). but i did a big mistake with this, i used to water them more often. this caused the bottom of the pot to always be humid and therefore the roots accumulated on the bottom. a large part of the upper soil was barely used. it's always better to put perlite in the bottom of your pot for drainage. mixing perlite with the soil is also great cuz perlite doesn't retain water. a good mix wld be 80%soil, 20% perlite.

Top dress=sprinkle it on the surface of the soil. Regular waterings will work it in.

*I* use closer to 40% perlite in my mix. The layer of perlite, or anything for that matter, on the bottom doesn't really do diddly. It sounds good though.

Get your watering habits right. Totally saturate the medium and let dry. Usually 3-5 days and no little 'sips' in between. Give the plant what it needs, not what you think it needs.

Wet

when u say 2 tablespoons per gallon of mix ,does a gallon of mix means 3.7L? cuz i used around 40L of soil

Rootbound is when you roots develope in ur hard pots but once it hits the egde of the pot it bounce off and turns, this causes the root to go around the bottom of the pot and cause a bulk of roots and dont get enough nutes and are are clumped together. smart pots prevents this because once the roots penetrates the fiber they air prune it helping the plant produce more structure.