root bound

omg, this thread just changed my beliefs forever! fdd kills another myth/legend, still kinda shocked, that was one of my core beliefs and it was false! thanks guys. lol

Hayduke said:

Everything you say is true.
However for the typical indoor grow the time in veg and height is limited. And while the 50/50 general rule from botany (and it is absolutely species dependent and a general statement) applies, a typical 2-4ft tall flowered plant just does not utilize 5+ gallons of soil.

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Far more often than not I grow indoors in 7-gallon pots and most often my plants will be between 4 and 5 feet and when I harvest I find that more often than not my plants root structure will have just reached the bottom and sides of the 7-gallon pots and ideally that is what you want, to utilize your entire pot without any circling or crowding.

If they had a lifespan longer they would use more root space, but would exceed the ceiling of most indoor grows...

Click to expand...

I do not know what ceiling height it average but in my case I have 8 feet ceilings and when you remove the height of the pots I use and the space needed for lights at their maximum height I can and have grown plants that are well over 4 feet many times. I have had sativa’s and predominantly sativa crosses that used every inch of my usable height.

So what I say is based on my experiences and not on what I assume to be average. I cannot tell anyone what someone else does or what works for someone else or what is sufficient for someone else.

Also with 37 years of experience and being a part owner in a pot-in-pot nursery I have something of a bit of experience in what is needed when it comes to growing healthy plants in pots.

But FDD kinda shows even in an outdoor grow, if the plant does not need to search for water and nutes and has frequent periods of drying out (by nature of small container) two of the reasons plants produce roots is essentially augmented (see below). The third reason is also augmented by added support. I am also pretty sure FDD does not use small pots because that is all he can afford, rather it is obviously not needed for a plant that outdoors seed to bud has a lifespan of 6-9 months.

Click to expand...

I have grown plants in 15-gallon pots on my deck where almost all of the pots had roots down to the lowest levels and to the sides of the pots.

Something that has to be factored in when growing in pots outside if what region someone is in. I can start plants inside and then plant them outside around now, if not slightly earlier, and with a head start and the length of the growing season I can have very large very thick plants with very large root systems. If someone is in Vermont or Montana or Canada they will not have as long of a growing season so they will not end up with plants as large. The same goes with people farther South of me who have longer growing seasons and who if they start plants out indoors and then move them outdoors as early in the season as they can they will have larger plants than I will.

Most people do not grow plants long enough to reach their maximum size according to their genetic coding. Most people could grow larger plants if they altered what they did, and of course had the height/space inside or grew outdoors and have a long enough growing season.

That being said If I was growing outdoors I would use either much larger containers or dig a hole...and I believe the question actually pertains to an indoor grow with half the lifespan, as most people do not grow outdoors in gatorade bottles, and use half barrels or again just dig a hole.

Click to expand...

In my situation when I grow outside I grow in pots on my deck. There are more deer here than fleas on a Georgia hound dogs back in August and they eat seedlings like candy. I have even had them come on my deck, on the second story too, and eat things.

I have a range of pots that are from 15-gallon to 25-gallon to one half barrel. The 25-gallon pots and the half-barrel are definitely larger than needed but I still like them because no matter what happens I never have to worry about pot size no matter what strain of plants I grow.

To me it makes more sense to have a little more space than you need instead of a little less space than you need. More space than is needed will never hurt anything or cause any problems but having less space than you need can cause problems so why not avoid such problems if you can?

And not a lot of time is spent in a nursery up-canning annuals.

Click to expand...

Being a part owner of a pot-in-pot nursery that covers around 12 to 14 acres now I am very aware of that. But in our case for many different types of trees and bushes that we will grow to larger sized trees and bushes before we sell them we will start them out in the largest sized pots they will be in until they are sold. Some we do start in smaller pots and upcan and repot but we have found it saves a great deal of time and effort by not starting everything out in small pots and then bumping them up four or five or more times before they reach the size they will be sold at. You do risk a root-bound situation each time you go that route so for things other than ones we will sell at smaller sizes we avoid those situations as much as is possible.

Nor would it really be good advice to re-pot halfway through flower.

Click to expand...

I totally agree. I say the only reason to repot during flower is if it is an absolute emergency life or death situation.

Even then I say if the person has the height it is better to cut the bottom off the smaller pot and score the bottom of the rootball and then plant the smaller pot into a larger pot so the roots will then grow down and out into the larger lower pot.

Good advice might be to avoid a pot that is too small, but from personal experience the majority of the rooting takes place during veg and the first 2-3 weeks of flower...since the question was to repot at 4-5 weeks into flower would simply waste soil since vegetative growth has essentially ceased and sticks with the 50/50 rule of roots to shoots.

Click to expand...

I would agree with that advice but would add that not every strain will grow the exact same and what is just adequate for one strain will be inadequate for another so to avoid problems it is best to always go slightly larger in pot size as long as someone the room to put enough pots in the size area they have to cover with adequate lighting.

You called it wasting soil but someone would be better off with a half gallon or a gallon of unused or barely used soil in a pot than to have circling roots because once roots begin to circle the plant will be under a degree of stress and the worse the circling is the more stress there is. So since it is almost impossible to accurately predict exactly how large roots will grow doesn’t it make sense to estimate high and have enough space rather than estimate low and not have enough space and risk what goes with it? Since the goal is to create as optimal of conditions as is possible why risk less than optimal pot size when it is so easily avoided and doing so does not increase the cost to grow more than marginally?

Again this is a very general rule...off the top of my head extremes in this would be saguaro cactus and epiphytes...or really any rainforest plant which has significantly less root/shoot. The purpose of roots for a plant are 1. support 2. respiration of gasses 3. transpiration of water and nutrients. If you live on moist airy bark you need significantly less root mass as compared to a desert plant.

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For the most part I would agree but not with the moist airy bark part. At out nursery we grow in pine bark and that is what I use for my plants and roots cut through it like a hot knife through warm butter on a hot Alabama night. As I said it is normal for my plants roots to use all of my 7-gallon pots inside and most of the 15-gallon pots outside. The plants push out a massive amount of very fine roots that I did not see in other growing media.

Remember that most pot strains are crosses and most are sativa/indica crosses so the genetic coding is a combination of each, to differing degree depending on the cross, so each strains roots will grow in a way that are genetically coded and not grow different according to what media they are growing in or what just one part of their genetic coding would cause they to grow if it alone decided growth patterns.

Logic would lead one to assume that Cannabis which has been acclimated to hot mexican deserts may have a natural tendency to have deeper root systems, and Cannabis varieties which have evolved in more tropical climes may have wider root systems. Though these ancestral traits may still be present, it is also safe to assume that some genetics have had sufficient time to adapt to indoor environments. I see this with diff. strains rooting more than others under the same conditions.

Click to expand...

That is true enough but again most strains are crosses so their genetic coding will be a cross and that means root growth that is in most cases a combination of an equatorial plant and a plant that grows in different cooler wetter regions.

I do not agree that there has been enough time for plants to have evolved/adapted to indoor growing. Evolution does not move very fast and if you consider how were are really only talking about several decades of breeding and how many strains have existed for a very short period of time to believe they have evolved is somewhat less than reasonable.

Also since seeds are most often made from clones taken from mothers it is not like each new run of seeds comes from a previous run of plants that were pot-grown. Each run is like the first generation of pot-grown plants instead of successive generations of pot-grown plants. Without successive generations there is not an influence to evolve or adapt.

Point is IMO to advise to re-pot 5 weeks into flower is bad advise.

Click to expand...

As I previously stated I would agree with that unless it is an emergency life or death situation. Any damage has already been done and is very hard is not impossible at that point to undo it.

And using common nursery techniques used for plants whose life span is counted in years and decades as opposed to weeks as justification is psuedo science.

Click to expand...

Not exactly because you are looking at growth during different periods of life. Regardless of, for example a tree or bush, having a possible life of say four years in pots in a nursery each period of time is spends in a single pot size, often times only one season, you are dealing with conditions for that period of time in the growth/life of said tree or bush.

It does not matter if said tree or bush will spend 1 year or 4 years in pots at a nursery because the conditions for each stage of growth is still the same as pot plants grown in pots. You are looking at a limited period of time that each will grow in a certain size pot and regardless of when you are talking about you are still dealing with conditions for a limited period of time and those conditions have to be optimal for optimal growth/health.

Just because in the case of a tree or bush they will be repotted and continue to grow and then one day be planted in the ground it does not change the fact that they need certain conditions at each stage of growth to be able to continue to grow in a healthy way and just because pot plants have a far more limited life cycle and are harvested does not mean that during their lives they do not need equally optimal growing conditions to grow and produce to their fullest.

Certain basics do not change regardless of what is being grown.

And as for up-canning in a nursery, of course it is not done to the point of reaching a terminal pot size (in most cases) but it is done because the little tree is going to be a 40 footer! To compare this to a plant whose purpose is to grow fast during 1 season and flower and seed before frost is like suggesting to leave the plant that is 33 days into flower in a solo cup, ridiculous.

Click to expand...

It is not ridiculous.

First off it is meaningless if one day a tree may grow to be 40 feet tall or taller because what you deal with when growing trees and bushes in pots in a nursery is seasonal/yearly growth and you have to keep growing conditions as optimal as possible.

A tree that may grow to be 40 feet or more can become root-bound when it is a 1 foot tall tree or a 5 foot tall tree or an 8 foot tall tree or a 10 foot tall tree and a pot plant grown in a solo cup or in a 1-gallon pot or a 2-gallon pot can be equally as root-bound.

It is meaningless that the pot plant will be harvested at the end of its growth cycle. Root-bound is root-bound regardless of the length of the length of life.

Claiming that to not be true is ridiculous.

Anyhow maybe because I was born in the show-me-state but FDD's pictures speak volumes...could they look better, of course. Could you or I make them look better, probably not. You wouldn't go to a soybean farming site to get advice on how to grow cannabis, so 100 year old nursery techniques, though are a great guide, should be applied with common sense.

Click to expand...

Certain basics do not change regardless of what is grown. To say someone would not go to a soybean growing site for pot growing information is valid enough but also it is invalid in that what is being talked about is growing in pots and soybeans are grown in fields. But still certain basics would still apply. The different types of plants have some different needs but others would be shared.

When comparing bushes and trees grown in a pot-in-pot nursery and pot plants grown in pots very many aspects of each are extremely similar. It is far closer to being an apples to apples comparison than you evidently believe it to be. I can say that because I have 37 years of growing my own experience and are part owner of a pot-in-pot nursery. I can see the similarities.

im growing my baby in a 1 liter pot hydro with a bubbler should i put it in a bigger one or is this fine

bigwity said:

im growing my baby in a 1 liter pot hydro with a bubbler should i put it in a bigger one or is this fine

Click to expand...

you will probably fill that container up with roots fairly quickly. what's your ph doing?

Brick Top said:

Far more often than not I grow indoors in 7-gallon pots and most often my plants will be between 4 and 5 feet and when I harvest I find that more often than not my plants root structure will have just reached the bottom and sides of the 7-gallon pots and ideally that is what you want, to utilize your entire pot without any circling or crowding.







I do not know what ceiling height it average but in my case I have 8 feet ceilings and when you remove the height of the pots I use and the space needed for lights at their maximum height I can and have grown plants that are well over 4 feet many times. I have had sativa’s and predominantly sativa crosses that used every inch of my usable height.

So what I say is based on my experiences and not on what I assume to be average. I cannot tell anyone what someone else does or what works for someone else or what is sufficient for someone else.

Also with 37 years of experience and being a part owner in a pot-in-pot nursery I have something of a bit of experience in what is needed when it comes to growing healthy plants in pots.






I have grown plants in 15-gallon pots on my deck where almost all of the pots had roots down to the lowest levels and to the sides of the pots.

Something that has to be factored in when growing in pots outside if what region someone is in. I can start plants inside and then plant them outside around now, if not slightly earlier, and with a head start and the length of the growing season I can have very large very thick plants with very large root systems. If someone is in Vermont or Montana or Canada they will not have as long of a growing season so they will not end up with plants as large. The same goes with people farther South of me who have longer growing seasons and who if they start plants out indoors and then move them outdoors as early in the season as they can they will have larger plants than I will.

Most people do not grow plants long enough to reach their maximum size according to their genetic coding. Most people could grow larger plants if they altered what they did, and of course had the height/space inside or grew outdoors and have a long enough growing season.





In my situation when I grow outside I grow in pots on my deck. There are more deer here than fleas on a Georgia hound dogs back in August and they eat seedlings like candy. I have even had them come on my deck, on the second story too, and eat things.

I have a range of pots that are from 15-gallon to 25-gallon to one half barrel. The 25-gallon pots and the half-barrel are definitely larger than needed but I still like them because no matter what happens I never have to worry about pot size no matter what strain of plants I grow.

To me it makes more sense to have a little more space than you need instead of a little less space than you need. More space than is needed will never hurt anything or cause any problems but having less space than you need can cause problems so why not avoid such problems if you can?






Being a part owner of a pot-in-pot nursery that covers around 12 to 14 acres now I am very aware of that. But in our case for many different types of trees and bushes that we will grow to larger sized trees and bushes before we sell them we will start them out in the largest sized pots they will be in until they are sold. Some we do start in smaller pots and upcan and repot but we have found it saves a great deal of time and effort by not starting everything out in small pots and then bumping them up four or five or more times before they reach the size they will be sold at. You do risk a root-bound situation each time you go that route so for things other than ones we will sell at smaller sizes we avoid those situations as much as is possible.






I totally agree. I say the only reason to repot during flower is if it is an absolute emergency life or death situation.

Even then I say if the person has the height it is better to cut the bottom off the smaller pot and score the bottom of the rootball and then plant the smaller pot into a larger pot so the roots will then grow down and out into the larger lower pot.






I would agree with that advice but would add that not every strain will grow the exact same and what is just adequate for one strain will be inadequate for another so to avoid problems it is best to always go slightly larger in pot size as long as someone the room to put enough pots in the size area they have to cover with adequate lighting.

You called it wasting soil but someone would be better off with a half gallon or a gallon of unused or barely used soil in a pot than to have circling roots because once roots begin to circle the plant will be under a degree of stress and the worse the circling is the more stress there is. So since it is almost impossible to accurately predict exactly how large roots will grow doesn’t it make sense to estimate high and have enough space rather than estimate low and not have enough space and risk what goes with it? Since the goal is to create as optimal of conditions as is possible why risk less than optimal pot size when it is so easily avoided and doing so does not increase the cost to grow more than marginally?








For the most part I would agree but not with the moist airy bark part. At out nursery we grow in pine bark and that is what I use for my plants and roots cut through it like a hot knife through warm butter on a hot Alabama night. As I said it is normal for my plants roots to use all of my 7-gallon pots inside and most of the 15-gallon pots outside. The plants push out a massive amount of very fine roots that I did not see in other growing media.

Remember that most pot strains are crosses and most are sativa/indica crosses so the genetic coding is a combination of each, to differing degree depending on the cross, so each strains roots will grow in a way that are genetically coded and not grow different according to what media they are growing in or what just one part of their genetic coding would cause they to grow if it alone decided growth patterns.








That is true enough but again most strains are crosses so their genetic coding will be a cross and that means root growth that is in most cases a combination of an equatorial plant and a plant that grows in different cooler wetter regions.

I do not agree that there has been enough time for plants to have evolved/adapted to indoor growing. Evolution does not move very fast and if you consider how were are really only talking about several decades of breeding and how many strains have existed for a very short period of time to believe they have evolved is somewhat less than reasonable.

Also since seeds are most often made from clones taken from mothers it is not like each new run of seeds comes from a previous run of plants that were pot-grown. Each run is like the first generation of pot-grown plants instead of successive generations of pot-grown plants. Without successive generations there is not an influence to evolve or adapt.





As I previously stated I would agree with that unless it is an emergency life or death situation. Any damage has already been done and is very hard is not impossible at that point to undo it.








Not exactly because you are looking at growth during different periods of life. Regardless of, for example a tree or bush, having a possible life of say four years in pots in a nursery each period of time is spends in a single pot size, often times only one season, you are dealing with conditions for that period of time in the growth/life of said tree or bush.

It does not matter if said tree or bush will spend 1 year or 4 years in pots at a nursery because the conditions for each stage of growth is still the same as pot plants grown in pots. You are looking at a limited period of time that each will grow in a certain size pot and regardless of when you are talking about you are still dealing with conditions for a limited period of time and those conditions have to be optimal for optimal growth/health.

Just because in the case of a tree or bush they will be repotted and continue to grow and then one day be planted in the ground it does not change the fact that they need certain conditions at each stage of growth to be able to continue to grow in a healthy way and just because pot plants have a far more limited life cycle and are harvested does not mean that during their lives they do not need equally optimal growing conditions to grow and produce to their fullest.

Certain basics do not change regardless of what is being grown.





It is not ridiculous.

First off it is meaningless if one day a tree may grow to be 40 feet tall or taller because what you deal with when growing trees and bushes in pots in a nursery is seasonal/yearly growth and you have to keep growing conditions as optimal as possible.

A tree that may grow to be 40 feet or more can become root-bound when it is a 1 foot tall tree or a 5 foot tall tree or an 8 foot tall tree or a 10 foot tall tree and a pot plant grown in a solo cup or in a 1-gallon pot or a 2-gallon pot can be equally as root-bound.

It is meaningless that the pot plant will be harvested at the end of its growth cycle. Root-bound is root-bound regardless of the length of the length of life.

Claiming that to not be true is ridiculous.








Certain basics do not change regardless of what is grown. To say someone would not go to a soybean growing site for pot growing information is valid enough but also it is invalid in that what is being talked about is growing in pots and soybeans are grown in fields. But still certain basics would still apply. The different types of plants have some different needs but others would be shared.

When comparing bushes and trees grown in a pot-in-pot nursery and pot plants grown in pots very many aspects of each are extremely similar. It is far closer to being an apples to apples comparison than you evidently believe it to be. I can say that because I have 37 years of growing my own experience and are part owner of a pot-in-pot nursery. I can see the similarities.

Click to expand...

THIS IS ONE OF MY MALE PLANTS ROOTBALL I CHOPPED IT YESTERDAY.
IT WAS 13" TALL IN 1 GALLON OF SOIL.
I AM TRANSPLANTING THE FEMS TOMMOROW BUT WANTED TO SEE THE ROOTS THAT WERE LEFT IN THE POT BY MY 13" PLANT AND ALSO TO PRACTICE TRANSPLANTING MY NOW 15" TALL PLANTS THAT ARE STILL IN 1 GALLON POTS(PICS TAKEN TODAY).
THE COMPLETE ROOTBALL AND ALL THE SOIL CAME OUT AS ONE.
I WOULD NOT SAY IT WAS ROOTBOUND BUT IT CLEARLY SHOWS THAT A 13" PLANT IN 1 GALLON OF SOIL IS NOT REALLY ADEQUATE.
SO ANYONE WHO DISPUTES THAT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ROOTBOUND PLANTS OR ROOTBIND IS DEFINATELLY WRONG AS I JUST PROVED IT TO MYSELF.
FACT.
LUDACRIS.

LUDACRIS said:

THIS IS ONE OF MY MALE PLANTS ROOTBALL I CHOPPED IT YESTERDAY.
IT WAS 13" TALL IN 1 GALLON OF SOIL.
I AM TRANSPLANTING THE FEMS TOMMOROW BUT WANTED TO SEE THE ROOTS THAT WERE LEFT IN THE POT BY MY 13" PLANT AND ALSO TO PRACTICE TRANSPLANTING MY NOW 15" TALL PLANTS THAT ARE STILL IN 1 GALLON POTS(PICS TAKEN TODAY).
THE COMPLETE ROOTBALL AND ALL THE SOIL CAME OUT AS ONE.
I WOULD NOT SAY IT WAS ROOTBOUND BUT IT CLEARLY SHOWS THAT A 13" PLANT IN 1 GALLON OF SOIL IS NOT REALLY ADEQUATE.
SO ANYONE WHO DISPUTES THAT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ROOTBOUND PLANTS OR ROOTBIND IS DEFINATELLY WRONG AS I JUST PROVED IT TO MYSELF.
FACT.
LUDACRIS.

Click to expand...

1 gallon of soil should be able to sustain a 2foot tall plant with watering once a day easy bro, you can push it past that pretty easily only drawback being that you may have to water more often.

I run sog in dixie cups on a usual basis and let them get from 1-2 foot tall from clone.

so long as the nutritional needs of the plant is met or exceeded and the roots are healthy, the plant will never stop growing no matter how big or how small the root system is.
Thats the fact of the matter when it comes to this subject.

Bear*rack Olama said:

1 gallon of soil should be able to sustain a 2foot tall plant with watering once a day easy bro, you can push it past that pretty easily only drawback being that you may have to water more often.

I run sog in dixie cups on a usual basis and let them get from 1-2 foot tall from clone.

so long as the nutritional needs of the plant is met or exceeded and the roots are healthy, the plant will never stop growing no matter how big or how small the root system is.
Thats the fact of the matter when it comes to this subject.

Click to expand...

i water every 3rd day and thats fine.
if you have to water every day then the plant is to big for its pot FACT.
(fuck watering everyday thats a clear sign of a rootbound plant).
experienced growers often find they only have to water their plants once or twice a week when the plants are in the correct environment.
(pot size according to plant size).
LUDA.

LUDACRIS said:

i water every 3rd day and thats fine.
if you have to water every day then the plant is to big for its pot FACT.
(fuck watering everyday thats a clear sign of a rootbound plant).
experienced growers often find they only have to water their plants once or twice a week when the plants are in the correct environment.
(pot size according to plant size).
LUDA.

Click to expand...

that isnt a fact dude, that is just against the way that you like to grow is all.
I find that plants using water daily means that I can feed higher amounts, more often and flush more often if I need to.

there is no CORRECT plant to pot size. they can survive in anything thatyoud like them to so long as you go about it in the ritght manner.

now that Ive said my plants need watering about daily, sometimes MORE, the only time I have to do it is once every 2 weeks, when I do a res change on the system.
Flood and drain with small soil pots.

Ya cant argue that Im doing some thing wrong...Im pulling a zip and a half with them in solo cups using gh3 part nutrients and canna pk13/14
Thats all they ever get other than water daily...

LUDACRIS said:

i water every 3rd day and thats fine.
if you have to water every day then the plant is to big for its pot FACT.
(fuck watering everyday thats a clear sign of a rootbound plant).
experienced growers often find they only have to water their plants once or twice a week when the plants are in the correct environment.
(pot size according to plant size).
LUDA.

Click to expand...

check this out, .........................

flood and drain tables soak the roots, then they let the roots dry out, then they soak the roots. this often happens twice a day. roots like to dry out. they do NOT want to be soaking in wet soil for a week. daily waterings are better.

are you all blind? how is this "bad"? someone please tell me.

Bear*rack Olama said:

that isnt a fact dude, that is just against the way that you like to grow is all.
I find that plants using water daily means that I can feed higher amounts, more often and flush more often if I need to.

there is no CORRECT plant to pot size. they can survive in anything thatyoud like them to so long as you go about it in the ritght manner.

now that Ive said my plants need watering about daily, sometimes MORE, the only time I have to do it is once every 2 weeks, when I do a res change on the system.
Flood and drain with small soil pots.

Ya cant argue that Im doing some thing wrong...Im pulling a zip and a half with them in solo cups using gh3 part nutrients and canna pk13/14
Thats all they ever get other than water daily...

Click to expand...

i keep showing the same pics and keep being told it's wrong. i'm as baffled about it as anyone. they think i'm arguing, i'm not. i'm trying to show them something. yet they keep telling me i'm wrong. do we just give up and walk away?

i never said its wrong but i do no that if it was in a bigger pot or a big hole it would be twice that. i wish i can get mine that fucken big though. that's one bad ass plant

Brick Top said:

You called it wasting soil but someone would be better off with a half gallon or a gallon of unused or barely used soil in a pot than to have circling roots because once roots begin to circle the plant will be under a degree of stress and the worse the circling is the more stress there is. So since it is almost impossible to accurately predict exactly how large roots will grow doesn’t it make sense to estimate high and have enough space rather than estimate low and not have enough space and risk what goes with it? Since the goal is to create as optimal of conditions as is possible why risk less than optimal pot size when it is so easily avoided and doing so does not increase the cost to grow more than marginally?


That is true enough but again most strains are crosses so their genetic coding will be a cross and that means root growth that is in most cases a combination of an equatorial plant and a plant that grows in different cooler wetter regions.

I do not agree that there has been enough time for plants to have evolved/adapted to indoor growing. Evolution does not move very fast and if you consider how were are really only talking about several decades of breeding and how many strains have existed for a very short period of time to believe they have evolved is somewhat less than reasonable.

Click to expand...

As far as estimating high...I would agree...that is why I used 3 gallon pots, and found them to be excessive for a 12-16 week grow.

As for the evolution part, you are correct if we assume Darwinian natural selection is the driving force in the breeding of the last 25 years...it probably is taking place, but it is masked by UN-natural selection by man. This is a much faster force which can be seen as soon as 1st generation and proceeds exponentially in comparison to natural pressures. Stabilizing that change is, I believe, the hard part.

LUDACRIS said:

THIS IS ONE OF MY MALE PLANTS ROOTBALL I CHOPPED IT YESTERDAY.
IT WAS 13" TALL IN 1 GALLON OF SOIL.
I AM TRANSPLANTING THE FEMS TOMMOROW BUT WANTED TO SEE THE ROOTS THAT WERE LEFT IN THE POT BY MY 13" PLANT AND ALSO TO PRACTICE TRANSPLANTING MY NOW 15" TALL PLANTS THAT ARE STILL IN 1 GALLON POTS(PICS TAKEN TODAY).
THE COMPLETE ROOTBALL AND ALL THE SOIL CAME OUT AS ONE.
I WOULD NOT SAY IT WAS ROOTBOUND BUT IT CLEARLY SHOWS THAT A 13" PLANT IN 1 GALLON OF SOIL IS NOT REALLY ADEQUATE.
SO ANYONE WHO DISPUTES THAT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ROOTBOUND PLANTS OR ROOTBIND IS DEFINATELLY WRONG AS I JUST PROVED IT TO MYSELF.
FACT.
LUDACRIS.

Click to expand...

That plant is NOT rootbound...it does have a nice root system though. It is ready for its final pot and soon the flower room (if Lola were a she).

Bear*rack Olama said:

so long as the nutritional needs of the plant is met or exceeded and the roots are healthy, the plant will never stop growing no matter how big or how small the root system is.
Thats the fact of the matter when it comes to this subject.

Click to expand...

Exactly!

LUDACRIS said:

if you have to water every day then the plant is to big for its pot FACT.
(fuck watering everyday thats a clear sign of a rootbound plant).

Click to expand...

It is not a sign of a root bound plant it is a sign of a thirsty plant. I used to water every three days, and then I noticed some plants at some times use more water, and a few have gotten too dry. Once the leaf is sacrificed to dessication you can't go back. I water when they need it, and sometime that is every day and sometimes it is every three days.

fdd2blk said:

check this out, .........................

flood and drain tables soak the roots, then they let the roots dry out, then they soak the roots. this often happens twice a day. roots like to dry out. they do NOT want to be soaking in wet soil for a week. daily waterings are better.

are you all blind? how is this "bad"? someone please tell me. View attachment 382563

Click to expand...

I am not blind...I can see the light, and the light is good...hallelujah...actually all the lights are off now.

mygirls said:

i never said its wrong but i do no that if it was in a bigger pot or a big hole it would be twice that. i wish i can get mine that fucken big though. that's one bad ass plant

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see, that's the whole point. i only wanted HALF that. that's why i left them in small pots. they say it hinders growth. i did NOT want 7 foot tall plants sticking out over the top of my fence. i wanted little 3 or 4 footers. sooooooooo ............................. i listened to all the BS about root bound and how leaving them in small pots would slow them down. BS!!! it never happened.

this was when i said fuck it and started going big. after i realized the plants were in control, and i was a slave to them, i backed off and let them tell ME what to do. it's worked so far.

i read every book out there. then i ignore it all and try it myself. ti's the only way to be totally sure.

FDD,

those are beautiful specimens...thanks for sharing with us.


Ice

i get so worked up. i have to learn to just put it out there and let it go. if i can grow a pound in a 3 gallon pot then i will just go grow a pound in a three gallon pot.

wow thats all simply wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fdd2blk said:

this was when i said fuck it and started going big. after i realized the plants were in control, and i was a slave to them, i backed off and let them tell ME what to do. it's worked so far.

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i actually am with you on the whole root-bound issue, but i don't agree with the above. YOU, the grower, are in charge of them girls. they are at your mercy, and you are in total control of them. yes, they'll tell you if they have any needs. but you get to make the decisions....

fdd2blk said:

see, that's the whole point. i only wanted HALF that. that's why i left them in small pots. they say it hinders growth. i did NOT want 7 foot tall plants sticking out over the top of my fence. i wanted little 3 or 4 footers. sooooooooo ............................. i listened to all the BS about root bound and how leaving them in small pots would slow them down. BS!!! it never happened.

this was when i said fuck it and started going big. after i realized the plants were in control, and i was a slave to them, i backed off and let them tell ME what to do. it's worked so far.

i read every book out there. then i ignore it all and try it myself. ti's the only way to be totally sure.

View attachment 382627 View attachment 382628 View attachment 382629 View attachment 382630

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this is why i dug holes this year. GOING BIG

fdd2blk said:

what is "rootbound"? View attachment 375701

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I don't know:

i just had this problem i transplanted they dropped for a day and where fine