smart pots question.

Gastanker

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
Will be using smart pots or the generic equivalent my next grow and have a question. Is it recommended to start small and step up bag size or start big and stay big?

It just seems to me that letting a small plant go in a large container will cause the plants tap root to hit the bottom before air pruning and establishing major side roots.

If I put them into a medium sized bag and let it fill in and air prune into a more fibrous mass, then when i increase in size the root development will be uniform in growing outwards versus downwards.

Forgive my horrid paint skills:


Am i over thinking this?
 
xivex

xivex

Active Member
If your starting from seed, then use the biggest sized smart pot you want to finish in from the start as the taproot from seed will grow deep and fast before stopping when it hits the bottom of the container...

If your starting from clone, youll get no long deep taproot, the roots will be more shallow and lateral, so then you could start in smaller containers and work your way up.

Personally, id figure out what size pots your gonna flower in, say 5 gals, and just start it all in that regardless. Less stress and less tansplant hassles.
 
Gastanker

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
xivex said:
If your starting from seed, then use the biggest sized smart pot you want to finish in from the start as the taproot from seed will grow deep and fast before stopping when it hits the bottom of the container...

If your starting from clone, youll get no long deep taproot, the roots will be more shallow and lateral, so then you could start in smaller containers and work your way up.

Personally, id figure out what size pots your gonna flower in, say 5 gals, and just start it all in that regardless. Less stress and less tansplant hassles.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the reply. Going to have to check out your thread. You have had good results with Smart Pots I'm assuming?
 
Snow Crash

Snow Crash

Well-Known Member
Start small and step it up. Too much media will stay too wet for too long. Allow the roots to just about fill the first container and then transplant. After transplanting, focus on keeping the roots happy, don't over feed or over water directly afterwards.

I'm using party cups to start my seedlings in, with pure coco. Then I'm transplanting to 3 gallon smart pots that contain only 2 gallons of a coco and roots organic mixture. This provides a wide base and is enough media to grow an average sized indoor plant. Honestly, they don't spend more than 3 weeks in the party cups, most of the life is in the larger planter anyway. The smaller container really does seem to help set up a good root system because there is less ambient moisture in the excess media, meaning you can water more frequently and keep the media more aerated.
 
Gastanker

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
Snow Crash said:
Start small and step it up. Too much media will stay too wet for too long. Allow the roots to just about fill the first container and then transplant. After transplanting, focus on keeping the roots happy, don't over feed or over water directly afterwards.

I'm using party cups to start my seedlings in, with pure coco. Then I'm transplanting to 3 gallon smart pots that contain only 2 gallons of a coco and roots organic mixture. This provides a wide base and is enough media to grow an average sized indoor plant. Honestly, they don't spend more than 3 weeks in the party cups, most of the life is in the larger planter anyway. The smaller container really does seem to help set up a good root system because there is less ambient moisture in the excess media, meaning you can water more frequently and keep the media more aerated.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I generally like all of my media at the same moisture level and always water all of it versus just near the plant. For this reason I am slightly worried that by putting my little guys into a say 5 gal bag right away I would be exposing them to very high moisture levels as medium without roots would stay wet for a long period of time.

They will all be started in small green containers before going into any size smart pot.
 
T

tnugent24

Member
it is best to put them in the pot you want to harvest first...try to re-pot as little as possible to avoid unnecessary stress....BTW i got family in paradise lol
 
B

bigsteve

Well-Known Member
I used to think that way too, but the answer is counter-intuitive. I get more bushiness, a good thing, by transplanting my clones twice.
After they root I put them into a 4-inch pot for 2 weeks. The root system is soon filled out and the plant grows many side branches. After
2 weeks the plant is rootbound and ready for the 3-gallon pot she will finish in. For some reason the seedlings do better if you let them get
slightly rootbound in a small pot first! I've done it both ways many times by transplanting straight from the dome into a 3-gallon pot and there
is no doubt that 2 transplants after getting rootbound are best.

Good luck, BigSteve.
 
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