root bound

LUDACRIS said:

so the theory everyone seems to say that you should allow a gallon of soil per 12" of plant is also bullshit????????.

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nope, that's correct.

thanks for the heads up kush

This should be added to one of the "myth buster" threads. I have found 3 gal indoors is excessive (2 ft trained plants as I am vertically challenged space wise). I have been using 6 liter pots and they seem perfect. And I have done the same as FDD, examining the root ball after harvest, and not much root growth takes place after the start of flower. I have been re potting a couple of days before flower, and it seems I should do this a little earlier as the medium (coco) is not as fully utilized as the space from the smaller pot. It also seems like the larger pot drys too fast on top.

But yes you have to water more often, and all of the symptoms listed in the root bound tutorial could be from lack of love. I have a 2ft headband in a 5" pot, just to see what happens, and though I have to water morning and night, she is identical to her sister in flower in a 6 liter pot except her node length is shorter as she is still in veg. I left her in a 3" rockwool cube until she was 1', but watering was more like 4 time a day.

not sure how big your plants are? But if they are alrerady root bound you need to transplant, somehow? with very low amount of stress. I would suggest getting some heavy grade trash bags. Put your plants inside the bag. on the ground fill it it with soil, nutes, etc. . tie it off around the base of your stem . then break the pot inside the bag, thus the bound roots can expand out into the new soil that is around the pot and inside the bag. punch holes in the bag for drainage. the bag becomes the new pot.

Why i say this, that at this stage of flowering, the traditional way of transplanting exposes your roots to too many varaibles that will stress the plant. (light, air, diease, etc) The plant will take energy away from producing bud to deal with the stress. If the plant even survives??????????????????????????/

chronic vegan said:

not sure how big your plants are? But if they are alrerady root bound you need to transplant, somehow? with very low amount of stress. I would suggest getting some heavy grade trash bags. Put your plants inside the bag. on the ground fill it it with soil, nutes, etc. . tie it off around the base of your stem . then break the pot inside the bag, thus the bound roots can expand out into the new soil that is around the pot and inside the bag. punch holes in the bag for drainage. the bag becomes the new pot.

Why i say this, that at this stage of flowering, the traditional way of transplanting exposes your roots to too many varaibles that will stress the plant. (light, air, diease, etc) The plant will take energy away from producing bud to deal with the stress. If the plant even survives??????????????????????????/

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All the more reason to leave her alone

you join this thread asking some basic questions and looking for some advice and some people just want to take the piss(i.e look how small my pot is and how big my plant is does it look rootbound??).
that dosent answer my questions.
and i think it should be fair that a moderator should answer your question instead of returning questions.
i only come on this site to try and help and learn but it seems that no one wants to help.
personally i think its a joke as we should all be helping one another.
is that not what this site is all about???????.
.

chronic vegan said:

not sure how big your plants are? But if they are alrerady root bound you need to transplant, somehow? with very low amount of stress. I would suggest getting some heavy grade trash bags. Put your plants inside the bag. on the ground fill it it with soil, nutes, etc. . tie it off around the base of your stem . then break the pot inside the bag, thus the bound roots can expand out into the new soil that is around the pot and inside the bag. punch holes in the bag for drainage. the bag becomes the new pot.

Why i say this, that at this stage of flowering, the traditional way of transplanting exposes your roots to too many varaibles that will stress the plant. (light, air, diease, etc) The plant will take energy away from producing bud to deal with the stress. If the plant even survives??????????????????????????/

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how can light or air possibly stress the plant?????.
and as for disease i think not.

LUDACRIS said:

you join this thread asking some basic questions and looking for some advice and some people just want to take the piss(i.e look how small my pot is and how big my plant is does it look rootbound??).
that dosent answer my questions.
and i think it should be fair that a moderator should answer your question instead of returning questions.
i only come on this site to try and help and learn but it seems that no one wants to help.
personally i think its a joke as we should all be helping one another.
is that not what this site is all about???????.

.

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I am pretty sure he was just helping...just in a zen-grasshopper sort of way. The topic is one I am also interested in (hence clicking and reading) and FDD's post helped answer my doubts...pictures speak louder than words.

LUDACRIS said:

how can light or air possibly stress the plant?????.
and as for disease i think not.

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I do not know about disease, but light for roots of course is not good, and too much air make them dry out. Too much light or not enough light is stressful for a plant. You probably cannot have too much air as long as there is sufficient moisture.

LUDACRIS said:

so the theory everyone seems to say that you should allow a gallon of soil per 12" of plant is also bullshit????????.

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people get caught up so much on they're "babies" they overcare for them in the wrong way. You should worry about the health of the roots, more than deficiencies, I see people giving advice on zinc and magnesium, thats just stupid. Feed your plants, water them watch for infestations in the roots, and root rot, other than that, its a weed, it will grow in any condition, just optimize those conditions.

Resident Kush said:

people get caught up so much on they're "babies" they overcare for them in the wrong way. You should worry about the health of the roots, more than deficiencies, I see people giving advice on zinc and magnesium, thats just stupid. Feed your plants, water them watch for infestations in the roots, and root rot, other than that, its a weed, it will grow in any condition, just optimize those conditions.

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What you should have said to be in line with the rest of what you said is just optimize some of those conditions.

If the goal is to optimize conditions why stop at conditions for roots and the plant(s) due to poor root conditions?

Root-bound:
Root-bound is where the roots of your plant outgrow the container they are contained in.


The following symptoms may be observed if you allow your plants to become root-bound:

1. Stunted Growth.
2. Stretching.
3. Smaller and slower bud production.
4. Needs watering too often.
5. Easy to burn with low % nutrient solution mixtures.
6. Wilting.

Sure sounds like optimal conditions to me, wouldn't you agree? Evidently you must based on what you previously wrote.

no .. if you read the entire replies of this post, its been clearly stated that root bound is very rarely if ever an issue. I grow 6+ footers in two and three gallon pots, ive seen a thread with a six foot plant grown in a paper cup, and a four foot plant in a shot glass, I know plenty of OG's that laugh at every deficiency stated, roots dont dictate size until bound, light and nutes do. As stated before, you could LITERALLY beat someone to death with a root bound plant, no joke, it would be as hard as a bowling ball. I have 3 footers right now in 4x6 inch pots, looking good and growing fine. You people are overbearing with your apparent knowledge.

I would agree on your needs watering too often, otherwise 99% speculation and paranoia and 1 % of actual rootbound

still no answers or helpfull advice???????????.
i thought fdd would give some helpfull advice instead of being a smart ass.
how wrong was i.
why be a moderator if you are just going to take the piss???.
ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT.

LUDACRIS said:

still no answers or helpfull advice???????????.
i thought fdd would give some helpfull advice instead of being a smart ass.
how wrong was i.
why be a moderator if you are just going to take the piss???.
ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT.

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dude you have gotten all sorts of help...for and against re-potting. FDD did help you...you are just pissed because you are stressed out about your baby girl. Relax, in 4 weeks she will be drying and if her pot was too small, use bigger ones next time.

And if you want to re-pot, go ahead. I would do it with the root ball wet, I read about doing it dry and while it is easier sometimes I do not think it is good, only opinion of course. However just like others have said, not much root growth will take place, so why bother.

And if drying out is what is causing the problem, put a dish under her and water heavy, she will pull a lot of water in an hour or so.

LUDACRIS said:

so the theory everyone seems to say that you should allow a gallon of soil per 12" of plant is also bullshit????????.

Click to expand...

i dunno, i have mine in 5 gals and they just reached 5ft five weeks in flower.. so maybe.. (flowered at 14in)

i've also heard a gallon of soil for every month they're alive, more bs from jorge cervantes himself (grow dvd)

Wait a minute I just looked back to see and yes this thread just started 4 hours ago and ludacris did not even start it or ask any questions, he just got shot down with real species specific evidence rather than old school nursery knowledge, which is generally a good starting point.

Hayduke said:

dude you have gotten all sorts of help...for and against re-potting. FDD did help you...you are just pissed because you are stressed out about your baby girl. Relax, in 4 weeks she will be drying and if her pot was too small, use bigger ones next time.

And if you want to re-pot, go ahead. I would do it with the root ball wet, I read about doing it dry and while it is easier sometimes I do not think it is good, only opinion of course. However just like others have said, not much root growth will take place, so why bother.

And if drying out is what is causing the problem, put a dish under her and water heavy, she will pull a lot of water in an hour or so.

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i always use the pot up method and i think my last grow ended up suffering from rootbind the plants were in 6" pots and were only 14" tall so you can see my concern.
if i thought my 8" pots were fine for 25" tall plants than i wouldent be asking and would just leave them be.

Resident Kush said:

no .. if you read the entire replies of this post, its been clearly stated that root bound is very rarely if ever an issue. I grow 6+ footers in two and three gallon pots, ive seen a thread with a six foot plant grown in a paper cup, and a four foot plant in a shot glass, I know plenty of OG's that laugh at every deficiency stated, roots dont dictate size until bound, light and nutes do. As stated before, you could LITERALLY beat someone to death with a root bound plant, no joke, it would be as hard as a bowling ball. I have 3 footers right now in 4x6 inch pots, looking good and growing fine. You people are overbearing with your apparent knowledge.

I would agree on your needs watering too often, otherwise 99% speculation and paranoia and 1 % of actual rootbound

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I have been growing for roughly 37 years, I am part owner in a pot-in-pot nursery that covers around 12 to 14 acres now, four members of my family have degrees in botany and I can tell you that as soon as the roots of any plant/bush/tree that are in pots begins to circle the pot the plant/bush/tree is under a degree of stress.

The thing is like it has been mentioned pot is a weed and weeds are tough and they can grow and grow fairly well in less than optimal conditions but just because someone grows in less than optimal conditions and is satisfied with their results in no way means that better results would not be found if they grew under better or optimal conditions.

I often marvel at the extent and expense many growers will go to in an attempt to create optimal conditions and then they stop when it comes to pot size and believe it makes little to no difference.

Take a few botany courses and grow for around 37 years you will learn that it does make a difference.

here is a pc of what i class root bound to look like


and i think it would be bad to re-pot a plant thats 33 day into flowering, maybe in the frist 2 weeks would be ok.

Hayduke said:

Wait a minute I just looked back to see and yes this thread just started 4 hours ago and ludacris did not even start it or ask any questions, he just got shot down with real species specific evidence rather than old school nursery knowledge, which is generally a good starting point.

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Brick Top said:

I have been growing for roughly 37 years, I am part owner in a pot-in-pot nursery that covers around 12 to 14 acres now, four members of my family have degrees in botany and I can tell you that as soon as the roots of any plant/bush/tree that are in pots begins to circle the pot the plant/bush/tree is under a degree of stress.

The thing is like it has been mentioned pot is a weed and weeds are tough and they can grow and grow fairly well in less than optimal conditions but just because someone grows in less than optimal conditions and is satisfied with their results in no way means that better results would not be found if they grew under better or optimal conditions.

I often marvel at the extent and expense many growers will go to in an attempt to create optimal conditions and then they stop when it comes to pot size and believe it makes little to no difference.

Take a few botany courses and grow for around 37 years you will learn that it does make a difference.

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THANKS heyduke and brick top.
fdd sucks.