So my question is...is this normal to see roots after only a week? Can I stick with the pot....since the plants are still growing? Will I have to repot again before flower? I may have asked the same question twice.
Yes, yes, probably.
Potting up is fairly straightforward once you understand the principles.
A pot of soil will usually contain enough nutrients to last the plant about 2-4 weeks depending on soil fert strength, lighting, watering, plant growth etc. So what you want to shoot for is a repot about every 3-4 weeks until flowering, but this is only a general guide.
So, you start them in 3 or 4 inch pots, repot at say week 3 into 1, 2 or 3 litre pots, then at week 7 into their final flowering pots. You want to try and time your final repot about a week before you switch to flowering so you let them root out that pot (roots appear at drain holes) and then the roots will continue to grow for the next 2 or 3 weeks and use the nutrients existing in the soil. Root growth slows considerably after the 3rd week of flowering where the plant switches all its energy into making buds and very little root growth (Hempie you reading this?) occurs after the third week of flowering.
You can't repot in flowering, at least you shouldn't as this will stress the plant at a vulnerable time and could affect the harvest or retard the flowering, this is the time you need to start your liquid feeds - after about week 3 in flowering.
You need to bear in mind, that larger pots will obviously hold a lot more nutrients than smaller ones and the chances are if you go into flowering with too small a pot) or insufficiently developed rootball) you'll run out of Nitrogen rapidly and start getting yellow leaves far earlier than you needed to.
You can flower in small pots, but you need to be quick on your feet in terms of spotting and correcting deficiencies - much easier to flower in say 2-3 gallon pots and not worry about feeding until later.
More problems occur from incorrect nutrient feeding than anything else - so why accelerate the need to do that faster than you need to?
You're also making a rod for your own back by having such a huge Perlite to soil ratio - it's not necessary. All you're doing by using large amounts of perlite is removing nutrients from the soil, meaning youll have to either repot or start liquid feeds much earlier than you need to.
Learn how to water your plants and soil correctly and you won't need all that perlite - 10% is fine.
