Dead or alive?

[cbdhemp808]

All about canopy space. A maxed out 3x3 will produce the same with 1 big plant, or 30 solo cups, or 9 3 gallons....different benefits though. Smaller pots have to water more, but you cam flip sooner etc....bigg3st thing is filling out that space.

Hmm . Talking about soil grows... there's gotta be an optimal pot size corresponding to tent size. Plants become stressed by small pots, once the plant reaches a specific maturity. What you want is that sweet spot where the plant can fully mature and produce nice, healthy colas – without suffering from pot-too-small-itis. Include also topping and pruning. Maybe also LST?... not my department.

But there are many other factors, include photo or auto, and the strain.

And then there's hydro coupled with LST. Can any soil or soil-less grow in the same space beat a well-executed hydro with LST?

 

[Canachris]

wouldn't a smaller container get rootbound ? does the shape of the container matter? I sometimes grow in square and sometimes round container.

 

[Chrondocious]

Hmm . Talking about soil grows... there's gotta be an optimal pot size corresponding to tent size. Plants become stressed by small pots, once the plant reaches a specific maturity. What you want is that sweet spot where the plant can fully mature and produce nice, healthy colas – without suffering from pot-too-small-itis. Include also topping and pruning. Maybe also LST?... not my department.

But there are many other factors, include photo or auto, and the strain.

And then there's hydro coupled with LST. Can any soil or soil-less grow in the same space beat a well-executed hydro with LST?

Oh! Sticking to soil. Lol....I guess I would say optimal is 5 gallon fabric.

 

[SmokingWings]

Big pots/less plants big yield
Small pots/ more plants/same yield.
I do like bigger pots though. Much more forgiving. All Bout the canopy.

True. But a grow in smaller pots can be fun when it works. Tried the smaller pot type of thing just to see what happens and how to work around some of the downsides.

Bigger pots and more forgiving is just as much fun.

 

[Sativa1970]

If you are growing in soil, that soil is your plants only supply of food, water and support. If your pot is too big, too much support or food supply is no problem. Too much water saturation can be a problem. If your pot is too small you will run out of all three sooner. Root stressing is not a positive grow technique.

Plants have 3 types of roots each specializing in food, water or support. When one need is lacking, the plant increases the amount of that type of root. Low nutrient will lead to more nutrient gathering root growth. This slows the other two types of root growth and ultimately choking them out if root bound. Hydro plants mainly have water and support roots because the nutrient is dissolved in the water. If you transplant a hydro plant into soil it will most likely die of starvation without adequate nutrient roots. Lack of nutrient roots is one of many reasons hydro requires 1-3 gal per foot but soil requires 3-5 gal per foot.

does the shape of the container matter?

Avoid watering the corners. Roots will grow towards the water but tend to grow up or down together rather that horizontally when they hit a sharp corner. I did a few grows in square wooden boxes so I could remove the screws to see the roots then one with a plexiglass side. Add extra dirt on the corners to funnel the water. They work great for SOG.

 

[gwhunran]

And then there's hydro coupled with LST. Can any soil or soil-less grow in the same space beat a well-executed hydro with LST

Yeah, probably more with hydro. People do amazing things with soil on here though. Hydro is easier for me. The set up just has to be dialed in and in my case mostly on auto-pilot. I'm just a monitor and do the grunt work.

 

[cbdhemp808]

If you are growing in soil, that soil is your plants only supply of food, water and support. If your pot is too big, too much support or food supply is no problem. Too much water saturation can be a problem. If your pot is too small you will run out of all three sooner. Root stressing is not a positive grow technique.

I think you mean that the soil is the medium by which both food and water are supplied (i.e. there's no liquid reservoir of nutrients), not that the only source of nutrients is what the soil originally contained prior to planting. Even with a nutrient-dense custom soil mix like what I'm using, I will still provide supplemental nutes later on in the grow – but, ha ha... this is because the pots are small! If I use 15 gal fabric bags, I don't need to supplement... unless the plants turn into trees, which they do sometimes.

 

[Sativa1970]

Yep, that is basically what I meant, Hemp. Soil is what we all started with because the simple recipe is seed, soil, light, add water, you grew a plant. haazzaa! Yes, you can add food and water more often, and support the plant to compensate for the lack of medium. Densely packed roots would lead to less exposed root surface area. That's like drinking your coffee through the stir straw when you could just drink from the cup.

So what would be an advantage of less soil? I am seriously curious, why? Added interaction and challenge? Forced dwarfism through malnutrition? Large pots clutter the look of your decorative floor tile? WHY!?

 

[SmokingWings]

So what would be an advantage of less soil? I am seriously curious, why? Added interaction and challenge? Forced dwarfism through malnutrition? Large pots clutter the look of your decorative floor tile? WHY!?

The questions threw me off at first so I came back and reread the msg. It is not about using less soil than can fit in the container; more like using the size of the pot that fits the situation.

There are situations where a grower has to use smaller pots. The first thing that comes to mind is a grow space that does not have the height from the floor to the lights. Often easier to grow shorter or smaller plants in 2 gallon pots than it is to grow one plant in a 5 or 7 gallon when the pot will not fit into a cabinet or tent.

Forced dwarfism through malnutrition?

No, not malnutrition but controlling the root mass size as a way to control height. The plant is still healthy and growing well, nothing going wrong because of lack of nutrients.

Added interaction and challenge?

Sure. Why not? I am surprised at the number of people who jump into growing for the first because it will be their new hobby yet they do not know about all the other options and are often unwilling to find out what else can be done. I figure that is kind of self-defeating. Like you said, you are "seriously curious" but so many others are not.

A goal of 1 ounce plus per clone. Not just once or twice but consistently, plant after plant. Figuring out how to pull it off in one or two gallon pots of soil is a challenge but after awhile not all that hard to do.

I mentioned using smaller pots because they might be what fits the space. Another reason is that larger pots filled with moist soil can weigh more than a person is able to pick up. They might have a bad back, worn out hip or knee joints or some other age related issue that makes large pots of soil uncomfortable to work with.