Do Small Rootballs Always Mean Small Plant Harvest

PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Do you believe that ONLY big rootballs can produce big plants? Like most old methods, the answer is not 100%.YES

I have grown plants using HPA and have gotten huge, highly efficient rootballs, but the plant size did not match up, at least compared to the relatively small rootballs I have routinely gotten for several years now.

IME, the key is to feed more often (at a lower EC), so that the roots do not need to get big searching for more food. In veg I flood every hour, mid vg-mid flower every 2 hours and during flower every 3 hours

Here's my recent harvest and her tiny rootball grown out of a 3" net pot

Single plant grown under an Amare P3 (300w led)
 

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southernguy99

Well-Known Member
It all depends on ones perspective of things, whats big , whats small etc. Do you think those plants are big? because to me those are nothing more then a good size branch that fell off a big plant. so you wouldn't need much more of a root ball then that. Grow a big plant (good Quality plant) and you'll have a root ball to match. different methods different growing styles but I also thing there is more effective a better growing methods then the one you use .
 
Fractured but whole

Fractured but whole

Well-Known Member
PetFlora said:
Do you believe that ONLY big rootballs can produce big plants? Like most old methods, the answer is not 100%.YES

I have grown plants using HPA and have gotten huge, highly efficient rootballs, but the plant size did not match up, at least compared to the relatively small rootballs I have routinely gotten for several years now.

IME, the key is to feed more often (at a lower EC), so that the roots do not need to get big searching for more food. In veg I flood every hour, mid vg-mid flower every 2 hours and during flower every 3 hours

Here's my recent harvest and her tiny rootball grown out of a 3" net pot

Single plant grown under an Amare P3 (300w led)
Click to expand...
Yuck!!!
 
Jimdamick

Jimdamick

Well-Known Member
Root mass has everything to do with plant size, just like penis size has everything to do with a happy wife :)
Are you in Hydroton, and a flood and drain?
You really don't have to water that often if you are, I would water just once every 6 hours, at the most, because your pebbles and the roots hold a lot of moisture, and it's good to let your roots breath a little.
 
Roger A. Shrubber

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
i grow in hempy buckets. i've tried 3.5, 5, 10, and 20 gallon containers, 10s seem to be the most efficient. i can easily double the harvest over a 5 gallon container. 20s only seem to give about 20% more than a ten, so theres a big gap of diminishing returns there. but it seems pretty obvious doubling the available size for roots to grow in makes a huge difference up to a certain point
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
southernguy99 said:
It all depends on ones perspective of things, whats big , whats small etc. Do you think those plants are big? because to me those are nothing more then a good size branch that fell off a big plant. so you wouldn't need much more of a root ball then that. Grow a big plant (good Quality plant) and you'll have a root ball to match. different methods different growing styles but I also thing there is more effective a better growing methods then the one you use .
Click to expand...
I did not mention my grow method, which is F & D. I pretest my grow totes so that each flood comes well up the root system
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Jimdamick said:
Root mass has everything to do with plant size, just like penis size has everything to do with a happy wife :)
Are you in Hydroton, and a flood and drain?
You really don't have to water that often if you are, I would water just once every 6 hours, at the most, because your pebbles and the roots hold a lot of moisture, and it's good to let your roots breath a little.
Click to expand...
In the picture you will see the 8 x 8 net pot which has polished ornamental stones (easy to clean post harvest, and do not break down like hydroton). I agree that once the root system is established I could cut it back, which I do, but could cut back even more. Thanks
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Roger A. Shrubber said:
i grow in hempy buckets. i've tried 3.5, 5, 10, and 20 gallon containers, 10s seem to be the most efficient. i can easily double the harvest over a 5 gallon container. 20s only seem to give about 20% more than a ten, so theres a big gap of diminishing returns there. but it seems pretty obvious doubling the available size for roots to grow in makes a huge difference up to a certain point
Click to expand...
I might get bigger plants by using a bigger tote, but the roots do not overtake the 3g tote I use now. More importantly, using 5g totes would mean using a lot more nutrient, so for me there is an efficiency factor. The issue with growing bigger plants is tent height combined with F & D requires giving up ~ 20" in height which includes rez and tote height
 
S

southernguy99

Well-Known Member
well you said you flood every hour, It doesn't take a genius to figure out what your running , and yes there are much better systems then F&D. Also I'm not sure what point your trying to make yes you have a small root ball but you also have a small piss ass plant. if you think you can grow a big plant of that size root ball think again.
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
southernguy99 said:
well you said you flood every hour, It doesn't take a genius to figure out what your running , and yes there are much better systems then F&D. Also I'm not sure what point your trying to make yes you have a small root ball but you also have a small piss ass plant. if you think you can grow a big plant of that size root ball think again.
Click to expand...

Kinda testy. Please enlighten me as to the systems you think are 'better' for growing indoors with similar height restrictions
 
UncleBuck

UncleBuck

Well-Known Member
PetFlora said:
Do you believe that ONLY big rootballs can produce big plants? Like most old methods, the answer is not 100%.YES

I have grown plants using HPA and have gotten huge, highly efficient rootballs, but the plant size did not match up, at least compared to the relatively small rootballs I have routinely gotten for several years now.

IME, the key is to feed more often (at a lower EC), so that the roots do not need to get big searching for more food. In veg I flood every hour, mid vg-mid flower every 2 hours and during flower every 3 hours

Here's my recent harvest and her tiny rootball grown out of a 3" net pot

Single plant grown under an Amare P3 (300w led)
Click to expand...
looks like fluffy shit mids.
 
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