First grow: SmartPots root ball from male plant. Compare to plastic, lettuce discuss

fanya

Well-Known Member
5 Gallon Smart Pots about 3/4 full? Maybe only 2/3. Next Time I'll use 3 gallon pots completely full and water more thoroughly for the smaller circumfrence. I wasn't watering the edges nearly as much as the middle and had to constantly rotate and turn them in veg due to leaning.

The plant has been in this pot since day one. The seed was germinated in paper towels and once it cracked and had a tap root it was placed 1/2 inched below the soil. It has never been transplanted.

Soil was FFoF
Nutes were 3 part Fox Farms liquids (Big Grow, Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom)
It was topped at just above the 2nd true node per Uncle Ben's gigantic thread.
Light is a 400 watt CMH
Total time growing for plant was 39 days from when I first saw it break soil.
"Harvested" on Day 11 of 12/12
28 days veg
11 days 12/12
The butter seems to be decent enough from the male plant, one grilled cheese got me feeling pretty good, snuck right up on me. I used 2 sticks of butter for the whole plant.
No weight of plant, no scale, sorry

The root balls look really good. There were no white root runners like I saw on my 1 plastic pot plant or have seen in pictures of transplants or root bound plants.

I've never grown indoors, although I have had lots of out door gardens of real vegtables due to living in the county. First grow with weed. It really does grow like a weed its amazing, lol.

So how does this compare to what people normally see in plastic containers. Seems to me everyone uses ridged plastic or the plastic sacks.

Thoughts, ideas, comments?

Pictures, from left to right, top to bottom

1. Offending male plant to be sacrificed because he did not live up to his feminized seed status
2. Bottom of pot
3. Inside close up of pot
4. Inside of plant flash
5. Inside of plant high ISO
6. The plant out of the pot initially. As you can see there is some soil already in the bottom pan thing, some got knocked off from having to kinda pry/rip it out/off of the pot. Also the very sides didn't have as much fibrous growth, probably due to not getting much water to the sides of the pot very often. It was quite attached to the bottom and required more coercion to get off.
7. Some dirt knocked off
8. More dirt off.
9. little more dirt off
10. The roots of the last picture with the dirt semi carefully knocked off
11. Top of tap room where it was seperated from the stem close up
12. Root system from the last pic farther away
13. The bottom 2 nodes of the stem and the root system from the last pic
14. Now with chopstick for somewhat size reference.
15. The stem and clump of dirt before I stripped it of its dirt.
 

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blahblahblah123

Active Member
Great looking plant! Wish it had been a female, would have been gorgeous.

I'm at week 6 with my female roadrunner (autoflowering) in my first smart pot run (1 gallon). I've always done plastic pots in the past and I always have massive root circling in the bottom two inches or so of the pot.

Very excited to see someone with such a great plant using them, I'm hoping the rest of mine will look that nice. The autoflower is my test plant since its so speedy, the rest are normal photoperiod (purple wreck). Glad to see such great root density and no circling, exactly what I'm looking for :)
 

fanya

Well-Known Member
I'm at week 6 with my female roadrunner (autoflowering) in my first smart pot run (1 gallon). I've always done plastic pots in the past and I always have massive root circling in the bottom two inches or so of the pot.

Very excited to see someone with such a great plant using them, I'm hoping the rest of mine will look that nice. The autoflower is my test plant since its so speedy, the rest are normal photoperiod (purple wreck). Glad to see such great root density and no circling, exactly what I'm looking for :)
The pots did exactly as they were advertised to do which made me excited because it seems like roots circling plastic does no good.. This seemed much closer to nature
 

okeydokey

Member
did it seem like the smartpot would be reusable a few times or does it need to be a new one every time?

...also kinda curious if planting in one of those reusable grocery bags they sell at the checkouts would work... not as thick as a smartpot, but it feels like similar material & would certainly breathe & drain as well... at 1/5 the price... IDK
 

naimad1234

Well-Known Member
did it seem like the smartpot would be reusable a few times or does it need to be a new one every time?

...also kinda curious if planting in one of those reusable grocery bags they sell at the checkouts would work... not as thick as a smartpot, but it feels like similar material & would certainly breathe & drain as well... at 1/5 the price... IDK
smartpots can be used multiple times. turn them inside out and run through the wash
 

okeydokey

Member
d
...also kinda curious if planting in one of those reusable grocery bags they sell at the checkouts would work... not as thick as a smartpot, but it feels like similar material & would certainly breathe & drain as well... at 1/5 the price... IDK

FYI I put about 2.5 ga of soil in a reusable cloth grocery bag last night after I posted this and wasn't thrilled w/ the result. It didn't hold it's shape as well as a smartpot, so when I moved it, the soil would break up. maybe roots would hold it together or maybe it would tear them up...IDK.
 

fanya

Well-Known Member
did it seem like the smartpot would be reusable a few times or does it need to be a new one every time?

...also kinda curious if planting in one of those reusable grocery bags they sell at the checkouts would work... not as thick as a smartpot, but it feels like similar material & would certainly breathe & drain as well... at 1/5 the price... IDK
smartpots can be used multiple times. turn them inside out and run through the wash
They can be washed and re-used again. Honestly I don't even think they would need to be washed but it would probably be better to get all the little roots out.

FYI I put about 2.5 ga of soil in a reusable cloth grocery bag last night after I posted this and wasn't thrilled w/ the result. It didn't hold it's shape as well as a smartpot, so when I moved it, the soil would break up. maybe roots would hold it together or maybe it would tear them up...IDK.
They hold their shape fairly well, they arn't like regular pots where you can move them around easily. You can move them but they are a little tougher due to the soil moving like you said. The smart pots have a coating on the outside though which give them some stiffness and rigidity, granted its not much but it works well. I found after a couple waterings once the soil settled I wasn't worried about moving them, just have to be gentle.
 

fanya

Well-Known Member
I thought I'd add...

My girls are in day 47 of flower now and the pot is basically one giant rootball. There is some loose soil on the top, like a 1/4 inch that gets washed around during watering and then the soil below it is just on big solid clump, like if I dug around I would be fucking up roots real bad, they are like that from the stem all the way to the edge.

2 of my girls are sativas, I vegged them for 28 days, and now 47 days into flowering they are over 7 feet tall...
 

naimad1234

Well-Known Member
I thought I'd add...

My girls are in day 47 of flower now and the pot is basically one giant rootball. There is some loose soil on the top, like a 1/4 inch that gets washed around during watering and then the soil below it is just on big solid clump, like if I dug around I would be fucking up roots real bad, they are like that from the stem all the way to the edge.

2 of my girls are sativas, I vegged them for 28 days, and now 47 days into flowering they are over 7 feet tall...
i use 7 gal smartpots exclusively and get huge plants, especially the sativa's. i have 2 hazes about 2 weeks from harvest that have taken over my room.
 

fanya

Well-Known Member
i use 7 gal smartpots exclusively and get huge plants, especially the sativa's. i have 2 hazes about 2 weeks from harvest that have taken over my room.
I got a 2 power africas going which are a Skunk/Haze x Durban Poison cross. I'm thinking they are more the skunk/haze side but who knows. They are huge and beautiful though.
 

naimad1234

Well-Known Member
I got a 2 power africas going which are a Skunk/Haze x Durban Poison cross. I'm thinking they are more the skunk/haze side but who knows. They are huge and beautiful though.
mine are a super silver and an arjan's. the ss is growing some of the biggest buds i've ever had
 
We are growing in 5 gal smart pots now and having great success. The roots grew to the outside and "air Pruned" themselves as advertised. Plants are about 5 feet tall and thriving!!!
 
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