Smaller pot outpaces the bigger one, WHY?

Hey guys,

I have two plants growing, one in a 2 gal pot and another in a 1/2 gal pot. The plant in the 2 gal pot is planted exaclty one week before the other and they are both switched to flowering at the exact same time. (So; 2 gal pot plant has been vegged 1 week more) The conditions are exactly the same for both. Only difference is I have topped and applied lst on the bigger plant; but I don't think I overstressed it. No training for the 1/2 gal pot plant.

Today its 21th day of flowering and the small pot plant is significantly ahead of the bigger pot plant despite of the 1 week more vegging time for the bigger one. There are much more pistils on the cola of the smaller one, the bigger one seems hardly producing buds and pistils on two colas and a few lateral tops.

Why is that? I have read something saying plants in smaller pots tend to flower faster because of there is no more room for the roots. Is this the case?

Thank you

When u top or do anything to a plant , pruning, de-leafing, pinching , topping, transplanting , etc. U tend to have at least 1 week recovery mode. Which the plant doesn’t grow at all until it bounces back from repairing itself / getting over the stress

Yeah, I know ahout recovery but Ive done topping in vegging and switched after it has recovered. (They are switched at same time) In flowering stage, I just trained the bigger plant to get a flat canopy and removed some leaves to allow the light go deeper. Are these also supposed to stunt my plant for a while?

You may have a faster wet/dry cycle going on and be over watering the bigger container plant. Or it may just be the topping.

Yup, Im also suspicious about overwatering the bigger bot. The small pot is perfectly drying out after 1-2 days after watering/feeding but this is not the case for the bigger one. I watered the bigger plant a few times when it still feels wet 1-1.5 cm top of the soil. Is this bad for preventing plant to get oxygen or nutes?

Thank you for your help

The plant in the smaller pot most likely established its root ball, and was able to move on faster.

Different phenos of the same strain also grow differently.

Unless they are clones off the same plant then uniform growth would not be expected.

One more thing to consider too.

Root bound plants, stop "bushing out".
They instead stretch and grow taller.

But at the same time, like the others have said here. Plants are real individuals.

I've found males and hermaphrodites usually stretch, and grow taller, before the girls.
This one is purely an observation of mine though.

Keep on grow'n

Tim1987 said:

One more thing to consider too.

Root bound plants, stop "bushing out".
They instead stretch and grow taller.

But at the same time, like the others have said here. Plants are real individuals.

I've found males and hermaphrodites usually stretch, and grow taller, before the girls.
This one is purely an observation of mine though.

Keep on grow'n

Click to expand...

agree on the males thing, they always seem to be the taller plant.

May just be a more vigorous Pheno,I never put my plants into Auto Pots before they go into the Flowering Room,I like to get the plants to become Root bound,before putting them into bigger pots.

Sounds to me like you have just found a better Pheno,why Cloning is Important just before flowering,So you have a replica of that plant.I had the same with some Super Silver Haze I grew,one took 10 week ,the other was done bang on 8 week.

Good Luck with the rest of the Grow
Tyke.

Lucky Luke said:

agree on the males thing, they always seem to be the taller plant.

Click to expand...

Males are normally taller ,so the spread of Pollen is done with a more wider area covered .

tyke1973 said:

Males are normally taller ,so the spread of Pollen is done with a more wider area covered .

Click to expand...

Ive always assumed the same as well.

Thanks for confirming.

tyke1973 said:

Males are normally taller ,so the spread of Pollen is done with a more wider area covered .

Click to expand...

Yep, but don't be culling the tallest plants before they show sex.

GeneBanker said:

The plant in the smaller pot most likely established its root ball, and was able to move on faster.

Click to expand...

Yep,

This comes up so often it should be a permanent post....

When a plant goes into dirt it expends nearly all it's energy growing a root mass to support the plant. You will see little or no growth above ground until the roots hit the side or bottom of the pot. Once that happens above grade growth will take off and you should see an inch a day or more growth. I'd guess your smaller potted plant has already "rooted out" and the 2 gallon plant is still building roots. Transplanting in a timely manner will produce the most growth in the less time. I've seen hundreds of posts asking why their plants are growing so slow. Often their pic will show a 4 inch plant in a 5 gallon pot. That is a recipe for weeks of unnecessary waiting.

Good luck, BigSteve.

Thank you all. I definitely got the thing.

Love this website.