speakergrower
Member
At what age should I transplant my seedlings. Either in how many nodes I should have or days/weeks from the day of sprouting. All help is appreciated.
When to transplant outside (age not season)
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John Jacob
Active Member
I do it about after a week, but really it has to do with your root growth if you can see the roots popping out the sides of your rockwool, rooterplug, puck, etc than its looking to expand and time to transplant, the longer you wait on moving it after this point the slower the rate of growth will become
speakergrower
Member
So keeping the plant indoors longer is basically harmful your saying?
speakergrower
Member
UUnless your talking about transplanting because I already know the dangers of being rootbound
John Jacob
Active Member
sorry dude when you say transplant I think from a one size pot to a bigger one I'm an indoorer myself.. if your talking in to outdoor.. I would go with what tellno said 2-3weeks about 5-6th node
speakergrower
Member
Do you think this guy is ready, it's about two weeks now...
pelt1
Well-Known Member
I'm no expert, but I just have some thoughts based on over the few short years I've been growing. IMO you want to transplant as soon as possible!!!!
I used to grow all of my seedlings in a dixie cup, and then transplant to my two gallon pots when I felt like it. But what I noticed was the type of root-ball I would have after the plant was finished after chopping.
Essentially, if you transplant, and you can see a giant root-ball, you have waiting too long. This seriously impacts how well your plant will grow throughout its life. If you wait too long, you will notice at the end of the grow, you will barely see any roots.
If you transplant early, at the end of the grow you will see the roots penetrate all the way through, which is what you want.
It seems as if you let your roots get root-bound early on in your grow, the roots just essentially decide that they are gonna be done growing. I've found that this can be helped out by re-vegging a plant after late transplant will promote some root growth, but the best bet is to just be sure you DON'T let your plant get root-bound before transplant.
I am attaching a pic of how bad I would let my pre-transplant root-ball get some times. You can see that it's ridiculously rooted. Also, I don't remember how old the plants in the pic were, but these two plants in the picture never really grew strongly. They also weren't as green, and didn't produce the type of yield I would usually get.
Since you'll never really have good root-structure after transplanting(the roots really won't grow much beyond this), it severely effects how much green your plant will be during the grow which I guess is a function of the lack of ability of healthy nutrient uptake?
I used to grow all of my seedlings in a dixie cup, and then transplant to my two gallon pots when I felt like it. But what I noticed was the type of root-ball I would have after the plant was finished after chopping.
Essentially, if you transplant, and you can see a giant root-ball, you have waiting too long. This seriously impacts how well your plant will grow throughout its life. If you wait too long, you will notice at the end of the grow, you will barely see any roots.
If you transplant early, at the end of the grow you will see the roots penetrate all the way through, which is what you want.
It seems as if you let your roots get root-bound early on in your grow, the roots just essentially decide that they are gonna be done growing. I've found that this can be helped out by re-vegging a plant after late transplant will promote some root growth, but the best bet is to just be sure you DON'T let your plant get root-bound before transplant.
I am attaching a pic of how bad I would let my pre-transplant root-ball get some times. You can see that it's ridiculously rooted. Also, I don't remember how old the plants in the pic were, but these two plants in the picture never really grew strongly. They also weren't as green, and didn't produce the type of yield I would usually get.
Since you'll never really have good root-structure after transplanting(the roots really won't grow much beyond this), it severely effects how much green your plant will be during the grow which I guess is a function of the lack of ability of healthy nutrient uptake?
missnu
Well-Known Member
Well the more sun they get the faster they will get big, so if you are able to just like sit them outside in their little seedling things everyday and take them in at night or something then as soon as they break open give them outside time...but as for leaving them out there, I wouldn't put any out til I felt confident I could easily find them again...so maybe 3 or 4 in. at least...hell I wouldn't want to put them outside til they were trees, but then you end up with a monster plant you can't hide if you need to.....so bad practice..shit grows fast outside...so the faster they are outside the sooner they will be large enough to leave...so it is really up to where you are planting them, but for sure wait until you have a few nodes I would think...since pests love new sprouts of anything, but most pests do not like MJ...I find that once they have a few sets of larger leaves more things leave them alone...but sprouts can be gone in minutes...snap...gone...
missnu
Well-Known Member
I was experiencing the same issue and laziness prevaled...this is what you do so you can keep using dixie cups as long as you feel like...I didn't find this out on purpose, but I am lazy so it happened...this is the way it all went down...I start most of my plants in jiffy pucks that go to dixie cups as soon as they sprout...and when plants are in dixie cups i find it is easier to just set the cup inside another cup of just water...and I had a marigold and a DNA Genetics Rocklock clone that both needed bigger pots, but ***Hellloooo--->Lazy...so I took down 2 little plastic red and green christmas cups and filled them up straight tap for marigold, and pH adjusted tap for MJ...and then I left them on the counter for like a day and a half...and both of them had grown roots into the cup...so now I have a passive hydro, soil dixie christmas cup grow...I just transplanted the Rocklock earlier today into a pot that will be too small in no time, but I am running out of pots here...the marigold is happy on the windowsill with a cup full of roots...I also sometimes feed the flowers kool aid...and they don't seem to mind...still hasn't changed the color though...lol. ahahahahahahahahaha...but really you can be lazy..just leave the dixie cup sitting on top of a cup of water..bada bing bada boom you just bought a few more weeks...lol.
speakergrower
Member
Thanks you guys for your opinions, I like to start a season with as many seedlings as possible outside that's why I put them out early because my box can Only hold So many but I may let them get bigger this time and see what happens...
