Not root bound in 5 gallon pots

CF89 · Nov 30, 2020

5 gallon fabric pots
Pro mix and perlite 3:1
2 month veg
480w quantum board LED light
Entire GH nutrients line
Pink lemonade seeds

Why am I not root bound? 5 gallon fabric plants are 4 months old (2 month veg and 2 month flower)

White bucket is 8 months old and has been re vegged. (2 month veg, 2 month flower. Then 2 more months veg, and 2 more months flower)

Was thinking of going to 7 or 10 gallon pots next time but maybe not.

mysticepipedon · Nov 30, 2020

For fabric pots, you sometimes have to dig into the soil a few cm from the side to see how rooted it got.

Keep this one fact about root growth in mind: ROOTS GROW TOWARD WATER.

The soil at the sides of a fabric pot gets dry, unless you water it a lot, or two fabric pots are touching each other. The soil will almost always be drier at the sides and therefore the roots will prefer to grow in other directions. They used to advertise that fabric pots "self-prune" the roots, which I guess means roots grow toward the edge and die.

CF89 · Nov 30, 2020

Maybe that’s why. I usually watered the center 70% and hope it dispersed outwards. Pouring near the edges was a total mess every time

mysticepipedon · Nov 30, 2020

Try putting them in a tray of some kind and let them soak up water from below to get the whole thing saturated.

CF89 · Nov 30, 2020

They sat on a mesh grille to get airflow around the entire pot. I didn’t want soggy bottoms

Madbud · Nov 30, 2020

Correct, the roots self-trim in cloth, then shoot off capillary roots. In plastic pails the roots will swirl to three or four feet long creating a ball.

CF89 · Nov 30, 2020

So what’s better?

seems like dwc guys have ridiculous roots and get ridiculous yields.

seems like I barely had any roots and got 2oz per plant and vegged for 2 months under a badass lights with 11 diff bottles of nutrients.

roots = yields.

no roots = no yields

fabric pots and soil = no roots

fabric pots and soil = no yields

Harvard · Nov 30, 2020

That’s odd, I can barely get the root ball out of the bags. I get 8-10 ounces depending on strain per plant using 5 gallon bags.

CF89 · Dec 2, 2020

Harvard said:
That’s odd, I can barely get the root ball out of the bags. I get 8-10 ounces depending on strain per plant using 5 gallon bags.

Sooooo. Do they air prune or not then???

I read a little thing on a big time growers IG. said something like “grow roots not plants” and it seems so true. I had no roots and my plants were pathetic.

Harvard · Dec 2, 2020

CF89 said:
Sooooo. Do they air prune or not then???

I read a little thing on a big time growers IG. said something like “grow roots not plants” and it seems so true. I had no roots and my plants were pathetic.

I would guess they do what they say, I’m just a concrete guy.
I’ve grown in plastic pots and fabric and get good results from both, maybe a little more growth out of the fabric. I have 3 strains right now, 1 yields about 4 ounces, another yields about 8, and my best one yields around 10 in my environment. Yield is really strain dependent if you have your shit dialed in.
I agree it starts at the roots.

Harvard · Dec 2, 2020

CF89 said:
Sooooo. Do they air prune or not then???

I read a little thing on a big time growers IG. said something like “grow roots not plants” and it seems so true. I had no roots and my plants were pathetic.

Pink lemonade is 80% indica, so I would guess it’s a lower yielding strain. More for a sea of green grower to get bigger yields.
Your plants don’t look pathetic either IMO.

GuySmiley · Dec 2, 2020

CF89 said:
Maybe that’s why. I usually watered the center 70% and hope it dispersed outwards. Pouring near the edges was a total mess every time

Try using a hand spray bottle to moisten the entire surface area of each pot before you water. "Breaking" the seal of dry soil with a spray allows faster absorption when you add the water to your plants. It didn't completely stop runoff/leakage, but it reduced it by more than half for me.

RR1 · Dec 2, 2020

CF89 said:
So what’s better?

seems like dwc guys have ridiculous roots and get ridiculous yields.

seems like I barely had any roots and got 2oz per plant and vegged for 2 months under a badass lights with 11 diff bottles of nutrients.

roots = yields.

no roots = no yields

fabric pots and soil = no roots

fabric pots and soil = no yields

The trick to fabric pots is to thoroughly water the whole pot till it drains out the bottom, and only after it gets pretty dry. If you water smaller amounts more often, the whole pot doesn't get wet enough. Roots won't grow where the water don't go. You also need to pack the soil in evenly or it can form channels inside that divert water to the side. When I did soil I had to pry the rootballs out. 6-8 oz average in a 5 gal pot. Got 11 with a chocolope once.
Now I like my Oxygen pot flood/drain buckets in a scrog setup.
RR1

Aqua Man · Dec 2, 2020

I have a theory that rootbound is more of a condition that causes a media to swing a lot in terms of nutrients ratios and concentration, ph and water availability. The larger the media the more stable this becomes but I'm kinda thinking if you can keep the media stable then its not so much of an issue. In my thoughts you can alleviate those issues by more frequent feedings and runoff to keep a stable media.

Case and point so far see pics of 1 gal plants fed 8 times a day atm.

But this is again theory that I'm putting into practice atm.

CF89 · Dec 2, 2020

RR1 said:
The trick to fabric pots is to thoroughly water the whole pot till it drains out the bottom, and only after it gets pretty dry. If you water smaller amounts more often, the whole pot doesn't get wet enough. Roots won't grow where the water don't go. You also need to pack the soil in evenly or it can form channels inside that divert water to the side. When I did soil I had to pry the rootballs out. 6-8 oz average in a 5 gal pot. Got 11 with a chocolope once.
Now I like my Oxygen pot flood/drain buckets in a scrog setup.
RR1

That’s exactly what I did. I always pre watered and let it soak. Then pour about 1/8th gallon at a time and let it flood the top. Then soak down. And repeat.

If I think about it. I only fed every 6 days. So my 60 day flower period got about 10 waterings of 1 to 1.5 gallons. So like 10 gal each total.

Each plant only drank 10 gallons? And if I added it up. That’s only like 40-80ml of each fertilizer. Not much at all.

I saw a dwc guy saying he had a plant that drank 5 gallons a day!!!! No wonder they’re getting 2lbs per plant and I’m 2oz.

this is my last (and third) soil grow.

Not root bound in 5 gallon pots

Not root bound in 5 gallon pots

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