a ? about my root ball

well i just finished my first indoor grow and learned alot, had to cut it short because spider mites took over. i did like 15 plants under 1 1000 hps next time im doing 6. anyways im cleaning and removing the rootball from my 3 gallon containers so i can wash them and after 3 plus months of flowereing the root ball is about the same size as the red cups i vegged the plants in, very small. i got about a half pound from 15 plants, would have been a pound if it wasnt for the mites. did the mites make the roots not grow. i had mites in the beginging and got rid of them and they came back midway through flowering. should i have loosened the root ball when i first transplanted them or somthing else, thnx

did you water every day? When I started growing I would water every 3-4 days and my plants looked rootbound at the end. Then a grower suggested that I water every day. I did that and now my root balls are WAY smaller. I think it is due to the plants not looking for a water source. JMHO

good point, no i watered every 3 days. thanks for the reply. regular soil by the way.

The plant was stressed out throughout it's whole life and struggling to survive the mite attacks, and therefore no energy to grow roots or heavy buds. So yes, the mites were a big factor in your yirld being low, and your root ball being small.