it has happened again. poor roots

carlosescobar · Jan 12, 2026

I chopped my layer cake down today and got a good 2 oz off it , trouble is its 2 oz of shit. and when i emptied the fabric pot i had the same ball of fine hairlike roots which only filled a quarter of the pot ? i expected this one to fill the pot at least down to the bottom. this has happened with 3 grows now so i am doing something wrong , this plant didnt even smell, ?
It has been growing in soil with a bit of guana , midflower i gave it a top dressing of potash but i cant imagine that affected it , the roots should have been filling the pot by then ...i did only give them 4-5 weeks of veg ? do the roots stop growing when its in flower? the only other things i can thlnk of is overwatering and or my light is not close enough (after burning one grow i am alway wary of having them too close)
my next grow is going to be 2 plants which i plan to keep small, should i use my xs1000 and have it a lot closer ,like 12 inches, or should i add another light? and have them at about 20''?

orggrwr · Jan 12, 2026

Hard to tell from the pic but it looks like it was transplanted when root bound and the roots kept growing like that. Did you kind of fluff the roots up when you transplanted? And I'm pretty sure roots keep growing in flower. Good Luck

Phyto · Jan 12, 2026

You'll get better growth if you don't take all the fan leaves off! You went a little crazy on the defol.

Grownsince95 · Jan 12, 2026

carlosescobar said:
I chopped my layer cake down today and got a good 2 oz off it , trouble is its 2 oz of shit. and when i emptied the fabric pot i had the same ball of fine hairlike roots which only filled a quarter of the pot ? i expected this one to fill the pot at least down to the bottom. this has happened with 3 grows now so i am doing something wrong , this plant didnt even smell, ?
It has been growing in soil with a bit of guana , midflower i gave it a top dressing of potash but i cant imagine that affected it , the roots should have been filling the pot by then ...i did only give them 4-5 weeks of veg ? do the roots stop growing when its in flower? the only other things i can thlnk of is overwatering and or my light is not close enough (after burning one grow i am alway wary of having them too close)
my next grow is going to be 2 plants which i plan to keep small, should i use my xs1000 and have it a lot closer ,like 12 inches, or should i add another light? and have them at about 20''?

They don't stop growing but it drops way down on the plant's priority list once it transitions. It really does put 99% of it's energy into making flowers. You should let the roots almost fill in the new container before you flip next time.

carlosescobar · Jan 12, 2026

orggrwr said:
Hard to tell from the pic but it looks like it was transplanted when root bound and the roots kept growing like that. Did you kind of fluff the roots up when you transplanted? And I'm pretty sure roots keep growing in flower. Good Luck

I planted the seed straight into the pot , the first 4 weeks were outside in the sun.

carlosescobar · Jan 12, 2026

Phyto said:
You'll get better growth if you don't take all the fan leaves off! You went a little crazy on the defol.

I did leave all the leaves on until they went yellow and crispy, that pic was just before i chopped it , this is what it looked like before.

Oldchucky · Jan 12, 2026

carlosescobar said:
I planted the seed straight into the pot , the first 4 weeks were outside in the sun.

Look like normal routes to me! Assuming it’s a photo! Are you completely soaking the medium when you water? And then letting it completely or almost completely dry out before your water again? Just two cents!

carlosescobar · Jan 12, 2026

Grownsince95 said:
They don't stop growing but it drops way down on the plant's priority list once it transitions. It really does put 99% of it's energy into making flowers. You should let the roots almost fill in the new container before you flip next time.

yeah, that would help with branch strength as well , this one got heavy and the upper branches dropped but i didnt lower the light to compensate

carlosescobar · Jan 13, 2026

Oldchucky said:
Look like normal routes to me! Assuming it’s a photo! Are you completely soaking the medium when you water? And then letting it completely or almost completely dry out before your water again? Just two cents!

they are not too bad for roots but they only fill 1/4 of the pot , they should keep growing till they hit the sides and bottom, so i am only getting a 1/4 size plant which is 1/4 strength? I was only watering 1 litre every 2-3 days but that must have been too much ?.....plus my light has been too far away , so the plant has just plodded on instead of speedwalking to the end stage.
on my next grow i am going to leave the leaves to wilt before i water.

RGWD0202 · Jan 13, 2026

carlosescobar said:
I chopped my layer cake down today and got a good 2 oz off it , trouble is its 2 oz of shit. and when i emptied the fabric pot i had the same ball of fine hairlike roots which only filled a quarter of the pot ? i expected this one to fill the pot at least down to the bottom. this has happened with 3 grows now so i am doing something wrong , this plant didnt even smell, ?
It has been growing in soil with a bit of guana , midflower i gave it a top dressing of potash but i cant imagine that affected it , the roots should have been filling the pot by then ...i did only give them 4-5 weeks of veg ? do the roots stop growing when its in flower? the only other things i can thlnk of is overwatering and or my light is not close enough (after burning one grow i am alway wary of having them too close)
my next grow is going to be 2 plants which i plan to keep small, should i use my xs1000 and have it a lot closer ,like 12 inches, or should i add another light? and have them at about 20''?

Roots are lacking probably from poor watering or not enough light. 100w is the smallest I’d go if I was running autos. I’d run both lights if you are running photoperiods. I’d also recommend not stripping the leaves as much. Only the ones that block light and limit airflow. Leave the rest alone, they are solar panels and where the energy comes from to push the roots and the rest of your plants growth.

TannedViking · Jan 13, 2026

Root development is most active during veg. In stretch it slows down and in flower it slows down significantly. The last up pot should therefore be a week or 2 before flip and the entire veg period is best spent maxing out the rootzone.

Had the same issue with sowing in soil, no matter if i started in smaller containers. Started sowing in coco coir and achieved way better results. After 2 weeks of rooting you can pot her into soil and she'll take off. Idea is to get the seedling up to 2.0ec asap so she can take full advantage of the nutes when going into soil. Wet the soil beforehand with minimal runoff, let it sit half a day before placing her in (best to fertigate her a few hours before so the coco is still wet and in shape and she has a buffer for nutes) and dont water again for almost a week. Not even after potting, just light press the alrdy wet soil and let it go. Let her work for it. Some clay pebbles at the bottom for her to settle in. After a week or so, on a saucer you could then actually leave the runoff in there when you'd go away for say 2 weeks to act as a buffer or fill it with plain phed water. Mycorrhiza also helps out a lot, just throw some in when sowing for best results.

Imo it's always best to start in a small container and up potting 2 weeks later. That bit of root establishment gives em a strong base. Easier to spot problems, less waste if it fails and if it does fail it usually boils down to Ph issues (too low tends to break em) during the seedling stage.

Lagoshemp · Jan 13, 2026

The buds, from the photo, dont look too bad at all. But I don't have too much experience. An awful lot to learn. Using fabric pots, the roots had completly filled out the pot. But I use biobizz light, usually with added perlite, about 10% or 15. And use either biotabs with orgatrex, or biobizz nutes. Not inputting nutes before planting. Still getting a handle on nutes. But the buds and plant look good. BTW, how big is your pot?

Oldchucky · Jan 13, 2026

Perlite FTW! Allows more oxygen into the root zone and speeds up the wet, dry cycles! I use a ton of it outdoors!

superchola · Jan 13, 2026

I get full roots in just dirt I see some genetics are just better then others

superchola · Jan 13, 2026

But we use pure glacier mineral water

superchola · Jan 13, 2026

Perfect example hyped up genetics no roots underground genetics full roots in the same water

carlosescobar · Jan 13, 2026

TannedViking said:
Root development is most active during veg. In stretch it slows down and in flower it slows down significantly. The last up pot should therefore be a week or 2 before flip and the entire veg period is best spent maxing out the rootzone.

Had the same issue with sowing in soil, no matter if i started in smaller containers. Started sowing in coco coir and achieved way better results. After 2 weeks of rooting you can pot her into soil and she'll take off. Idea is to get the seedling up to 2.0ec asap so she can take full advantage of the nutes when going into soil. Wet the soil beforehand with minimal runoff, let it sit half a day before placing her in (best to fertigate her a few hours before so the coco is still wet and in shape and she has a buffer for nutes) and dont water again for almost a week. Not even after potting, just light press the alrdy wet soil and let it go. Let her work for it. Some clay pebbles at the bottom for her to settle in. After a week or so, on a saucer you could then actually leave the runoff in there when you'd go away for say 2 weeks to act as a buffer or fill it with plain phed water. Mycorrhiza also helps out a lot, just throw some in when sowing for best results.

Imo it's always best to start in a small container and up potting 2 weeks later. That bit of root establishment gives em a strong base. Easier to spot problems, less waste if it fails and if it does fail it usually boils down to Ph issues (too low tends to break em) during the seedling stage.

I never got on with coco, especially towards the end of flower...although that was my fault as i treated it like soil.
yeah ive got some Mycorrhiza, and rooting powder, to add to the soil as well as perlite. ive got a layer of clay pebbles at the bottom ....Im also going to put a couple of small tubes in the soil so i know the water is getting down to the bottom and ive got to veg for 8 weeks really , not 4 like i did before.

carlosescobar · Jan 13, 2026

superchola said:
I get full roots in just dirt I see some genetics are just better then others

thats what i am talking about . do you use one of those self watering systems? that lot is going to be sucking up 4X the amount of nutrients than mine is .
last summer i had one in a pot hidden in the garden , i kept forgetting to water it and when i repotted the roots looked like that....i must be overwatering still .

Hossgrows · Jan 14, 2026

What's your soil temps within the pots.

carlosescobar · Jan 14, 2026

Hossgrows said:
What's your soil temps within the pots.

good point , the soil was 19oC , some nights it might have dropped down to 16-17 degrees and it rarely went over 21.
I dont think this helped. with my next grow i am going to leave my heat mat under the pot and perhaps have it come on half way through the dark period ....whats a good soil temp ? 22 oC?

it has happened again. poor roots

it has happened again. poor roots

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it has happened again. poor roots

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