Conflicting info, someone with knowledge on "root bound" plants please help

I am starting my first indoor grow in the next few days here,
And I only have small pots to work with. They are the 10" ones
from Home Depot. I was told they're 3 gallon, but it seems maybe
a little smaller, like maybe 2 gallon, possibly a little less.

I want to start my plants in 16oz cups, then onto the 10" pots.

I have seen some posts on sites like this one that say there is
no such thing as "root bound plants", then I see others that say
it does happen. I heard that I need 1 gallon of soil per each month
the plant is alive, and seen posts that say that is wrong.

I have seen pics that have 4 foot tall plants in the same 16oz cups
I have (the red ones you can buy just about anywhere), but as far as
I know, that could have been photoshopped. Hell, I can photoshop my
big head into a Ferrari, does that mean I drive a Ferrari? No, I still drive
my 5 year old Dodge.

Can anyone shed some light on this? I only have a 2 x 2 area to work with
if that makes any difference.

Thanks in advance for those that can help me.

If indeed they are 3 gallon pots then you can finish in those, people do it all the time

I think root size makes a huge difference in the overall size of the plant, especially in soil. Whenever I transplant my growth explodes. I always imagine the roots as searching for nutrients so if your going to try to keep the roots small you will have to give the plant a perfect amount of nutrients through your waterings like hydro growers. If your plant is deprived of them than the confined root space might be a problem but otherwise I think you'll be okay.

with 2 gallon pots and only a 2x2 area, obviously u r going to have plants quite a bit shorter then 2 feet in height. it is a simple standard, 1 gallon per 1 foot of height for ur plants

usually, when size of foliage matches size of container (sorta, accounting for the container)

for me, plants stall out, foliage gets droopy and when i check the roots, they have completely filled out the container and if i wait long enough, have begun to circle the container.

transplant, voila, 3-4 hours later, plants are no longer droopy and continue growing at an fast pace.

when i say usually, i dont remember anything else having happened or a plant that didnt do this, but ive only been growing for 4 years. maybe a 100 mj plants in that time.

I would agree that the size of the pot generally correlates with the age/size of the plant. If you are growing in a 2x2 area you are going to have pretty young fairly small plants. You could easily get away with one gallon pots. These averaged an oz each with a 1 week veg in 1 gal pots under CFLs.



If you choose small pots I would advise you go with aero pots or smart pots. Seems like a 1 gal smart pot is more equivalent to a 2 gallon regular pot.

smokebros said:

If indeed they are 3 gallon pots then you can finish in those, people do it all the time

Click to expand...

These are the ones I have here: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100143618/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053
I bought these years ago to grow regular house plants. I wanna say they are closer to 1.75 gallon. But I may be wrong on this.

thexception said:

with 2 gallon pots and only a 2x2 area, obviously u r going to have plants quite a bit shorter then 2 feet in height. it is a simple standard, 1 gallon per 1 foot of height for ur plants

Click to expand...

2 feet tall would be great, because I have some height restrictions. But I could also tie the plants down like I did my
outside ones so they never protruded over the top of the fence. I just don't want them to suffer because of not only
my lack of indoor growing knowledge, but also because of being root bound.

Gastanker said:

I would agree that the size of the pot generally correlates with the age/size of the plant. If you are growing in a 2x2 area you are going to have pretty young fairly small plants. You could easily get away with one gallon pots. These averaged an oz each with a 1 week veg in 1 gal pots under CFLs.

If you choose small pots I would advise you go with aero pots or smart pots. Seems like a 1 gal smart pot is more equivalent to a 2 gallon regular pot.

Click to expand...

What are "smart pots"? Can these be bought at a regular store, or online somewhere? I might look into those.

If you ever need larger free pots just call around to the local nurseries. Many nurseries buy plants from larger producers and then have to re-pot before sales as they come in branded pots. Many of the larger producers (Monrovia being a big one) also refuse to reuse pots so the nurseries are left with surplus pots they cannot sell due to the branding.

I picked up 75 five gallon pots for free (the guy thanked me and asked if I would take more). I bought 8 bags of soil from him after wards to thank him but what a great deal.

Green Inferno said:

What are "smart pots"? Can these be bought at a regular store, or online somewhere? I might look into those.

Click to expand...

Smart pots are cloth bags that hold soil. These bags facilitate better air exchange and root growth. They can be purchased online as well as in hydro stores and some nurseries. There are equally good competitors out there as well.

Gastanker said:

If you ever need larger free pots just call around to the local nurseries. Many nurseries buy plants from larger producers and then have to re-pot before sales as they come in branded pots. Many of the larger producers (Monrovia being a big one) also refuse to reuse pots so the nurseries are left with surplus pots they cannot sell due to the branding.

I picked up 75 five gallon pots for free (the guy thanked me and asked if I would take more). I bought 8 bags of soil from him after wards to thank him but what a great deal.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure of any nurseries around here, but I'm sure there are at least a few. If worse comes to worse, I can always buy some.
Grow bags seem pretty cheap. In addition to not trying to use too little soil/pot size, I'd don't want an overkill on soil amount/pot size,
because of my space limitations.

Seems like there is a lot of info involved for growing inside. When I did this outside, the Earth was my flower pot. Fortunately I had good soil
on my property. Some of my plants got too big for my comfort, if I didn't tie them down, they could be seen from places that they should not
be seen from, like neighbors property.

I use the 3 gallons to finish all the time. I go from start, to a gallon pot, I let the plant get as big as it can in a gallon pot, (about 3 weeks) then just as it is beginning to get root bound, I switch it to a 3 gallon, let the plant explode for a week in the new larger pot, then I flip it to 12/12. I never end up with root bound plants before they finish. I think waiting as long as possible to put my plant in the 3 gallon helps keep the roots from spreading out early, forces them to make the best of the small container, then they get a new 3 times larger pot to finish in. I usually flower for 10 weeks. I keep a couple 5 gallon buckets I drilled out just in case. But usually only use them for mothers. The way I see it is... If I can do it in 3 gallon pots, that is less dirt to buy, less nuts to use, easier to move around the pots, less dirt to get rid of when you crop out. It really comes down to how large you plan to grow them, and for how long. Experiment, try waiting to put them in your final pot until they are just becoming root bound in the smaller pot. Then flip them soon after to insure they will finish flowering before they run out of dirt.... My $.02