For all you soil growers out there

I've been reading and noticing a lot of people are using a start cup to start their seedlings/sprouts in and, letting them grow vegetatively for a while before transplanting. Curious if there's a particular reason some people do this?
I always thought once you germinate, it's best to put them in their final resting place. So I'm curious why I'm seeing so many people take the extra step? Seems like a waste of time and stress on plant to transplant it after germination.

Too much water sitting around in a large pot..

It is much more convenient to raise 10 girls in veg in 1 gallon pots as opposed to 10 girls in 7 gallon pots.

what these 2 said above me.

many people veg under a t5 or 400 mh and you can fit more plants in small pots under those than with big 5 or 10, 15 gallon pots.

also the big containers with little plants in them are very easy to overwater.

I've always gone s.o.g method and kept short plants so it never really was an issue for me. I can see how with larger set ups it would be beneficial, makes sense.

Too many threads about this, but the main point is directed towards newbs, it is much easier to control the watering when in a pot closer to the plant size when small.

Bakatare666 said:

Too many threads about this, but the main point is directed towards newbs, it is much easier to control the watering when in a pot closer to the plant size when small.

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I have also read about not enough oxygen gets to the roots? Not sure where I read this at though... I do the 'cup' cause I fill it up... let's have a party.. wait never mind.. yes I use solo cups cause of the ease of taking care of the seedling so small.

if u dont work up to big pots u end up w pots full of dirt and no roots ........the roots grow to the sides and down nothing in between....big waste of soil time money etc........

Theres a sticky i do belive thats called "replant those stretchy stems".

oh fuck, you said 7 gallons? I have 2gallon pots for all 6 of my plants, this won't be big enough for their entire life cycle? (I'm a newbie)

smoketheregs said:

oh fuck, you said 7 gallons? I have 2gallon pots for all 6 of my plants, this won't be big enough for their entire life cycle? (I'm a newbie)

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depending on how long you veg, 7 gallons is fine. i was told 1 gallon per month. so if you have 7 gallons in theory you should be able to veg for 5 months, then the other 2 for flower.

Also when first growing the plant needs to grow roots below before it really even.starts to grow in height

smoketheregs said:

oh fuck, you said 7 gallons? I have 2gallon pots for all 6 of my plants, this won't be big enough for their entire life cycle? (I'm a newbie)

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A general rule of thumb is a gallon per foot of height-you want your plants to reach 7 foot mark than a seven gal pot.Also,you should realize that what pot your growing will have a growth spurt when you put them to bloom.Typical indicas will double there height and sativas will go 2 plus in size.So for a 7 foot finish(harvest) you should put to bloom at the 3 foot mark.Where as if you are growing a heavy sativa strain you will want to put them to bloom around the 2 foot mark.This is just a general rule of thumb-hope this helps-good luck.

Are you Solo Cup guys doing more than one transplant (example Solo to 3 Gal to 5 Gal) or do you keep em in the cup just for a week then put them into 5 Gal (or 7 Gal)? I'm on my first grow ever, they just sprouted in clear 16 oz. cups, and I have hand-me-down 3 Gal and 5 Gal buckets from a hydro convert grower so I can do it either way.

also transfers when don properly promote growth. small cups cause the tap root to grow short and then a transplant from that forces all the root mass to extend outwards in all directions and not just the tap root/feeder roots.

I do solo cups to one gallon for veg and then into three gallon for flower. When I harvest my pots are fill of roots I have a friend that goes straight into five gallon pots and his plants have tiny little root balls when they are done

There's a good grow thread on here where the grower goes from his clone machine right into cut 2 litre diet pepsi bottles, then grows two foot tall plants in the 12/12 cycle...
I have height restrictions for my plants. I am restricting my 3' tall mother plant with a one gallon bucket. I don't want tall plants, so how tall/big do you want your plants to be?
It's much easier stress wise, on plants if you match your root ball to correct size of plant container. Then you can get the correct water/nuts to the plant and not just into the dirt...

BrewsNBuds said:

Are you Solo Cup guys doing more than one transplant (example Solo to 3 Gal to 5 Gal) or do you keep em in the cup just for a week then put them into 5 Gal (or 7 Gal)? I'm on my first grow ever, they just sprouted in clear 16 oz. cups, and I have hand-me-down 3 Gal and 5 Gal buckets from a hydro convert grower so I can do it either way.

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I got from a puck.to a coconut cup,to a 2 gal then to a 5 gallon pail.

BrewsNBuds said:

Are you Solo Cup guys doing more than one transplant (example Solo to 3 Gal to 5 Gal) or do you keep em in the cup just for a week then put them into 5 Gal (or 7 Gal)? I'm on my first grow ever, they just sprouted in clear 16 oz. cups, and I have hand-me-down 3 Gal and 5 Gal buckets from a hydro convert grower so I can do it either way.

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I went from cup, to 1 gal., to 2 1/2 gal., to 5 for final.

I almost always start my seeds/clones in RapidRooters but once I have roots I've gone directly to larger pots (like I did with my current grow) or I've vegged them in smaller pots and moved to larger ones for flower. If you do veg in a smaller pot, something like an Air-Pot may be worth looking at so you don't have to worry about them getting root bound before you transplant.