Capulator
likes to smell trees.
Supporter
- 6,070
- 313
first, it's called a "hypothesis"...not a "theory". Capulator's hypothesis is that yield is NOT proportional to root mass. nmeeks makes a good argument that the yield won't be proportionately lower. i think a better question is: what's the minimum root mass for best yield? the other question is what impact it has on quality?
two plants is NOT an 'experiment' in any way. i'm an engineer, and learned to design proper experiments and draw logical conclusions. you first need consistent results with a large enough population, and then change one variable at a time. i'm with nmeeks that pruning roots is an added stress (i.e. a second variable). an experiment needs to be repeatable.
a true experiment would be 16 plants in 6" cubes on one table, and 16 plants in 4" cubes on another table, all other conditions being the same, for a several cycles (drip emitters or e&f with air pruning). if Capulator's hypothesis is correct, the 4" cube (with 30% the root mass) will yield proportionately better than the 6" cube. graph the results, eliminate wonky numbers, find your average yield and standard deviation (which should be small). the plant mass has to be the same at the time of flowering (possibly different timelines). i think the results would be surprising.
Good point on the hypothesis versus theory vocabulary, I edited my post to reflect your correction. I think the medium Cap is attempting to test this hypothesis in is specifically RDWC, not rockwool cubes. I think it should be interesting to find out what happens, but maybe you could sacrifice 2 plants to the root chopping, so that we at least have some kind of sample? With all that said, thanks for being such a generous person that you risk your plants yield for the benefit of all of us here to learn something new.
-Meeks
I would think it would have the potential to stress and stall them, but I see what you're saying. It may be one of those misunderstood myth issues like overwatering. Grateful H3ad pointed out that there is really no such thing as overwatering, only under-oxygenating - case-in-point proven by DWC. In this version though (bigger roots = bigger fruits), the conflation is between veg-time or mis-matched pot size.
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