Root Development vs Plant Growth

Interesting root development... mine barely show their faces. Although I won't know what the roots look like until I harvest. If I get that far. There's no problems, but according to the old rules my plants should be rootbound and unable to uptake nutes by now.

That plant is roughly 3 weeks in, i have others all a similar age some a week older. They have all been kept in the single cube the whole time until last night when i added an extra cube for the underneath. I'm already starting to see sex on these plants 4 weeks into veg roughly.

What are they, nl? Are they from clone?

All from seed, the plant in the picture i think is sensi star.

Within the next week, she's going to burst into growth.

The roots also seem quite fat... i'm thinking that there may be a difference between clones roots and seed roots. If I had roots that fat in one of my tiniest pots (a tad bigger than a can of coke), they would be bursting through the plastic.

Here is the rate of growth over 7 days from these plants. Even though they have been in just a single cube, the second picture was taken straight after the change around.

its amazing what can happen in a week.

I must say iimpressive work. I see what you are saying about rootbound. Unfortunately I still do not agree with you.....as an experienced grower you may be very well able to do what you have accomplished here (obviously) but it's a little much IN MY OPINION ONLY to drop in on noobs and make such a statement.

That said.....excellent work. I'm very iimpressed.

Weedhound said:

I see what you are saying about rootbound. Unfortunately I still do not agree with you.....as an experienced grower you may be very well able to do what you have accomplished here (obviously) but it's a little much IN MY OPINION ONLY to drop in on noobs and make such a statement.

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You see what i'm saying, yet you don't agree. Why not?

I say things the way I see them. Rootbound, as far as my experiment is showing, is a load of bullshit. I'll admit, the experiment is not over yet... but if it succeeds then i will shout it from the rooftops... that all the old rules are full of shit... and I shall tell noob after noob about my discovery.

In fact it was fdd' that first called bullshit on rootbound, I'm merely testing how far I can push it.

So far, I've saved money on medium and nutes... I suppose you could aslo count that smaller pots like these cost much less than the bigger ones... so technically there is money to be saved there too... although I already have big pots, so technically I've lost out a little by buying the smaller ones... which i think cost me no more than a £.

Well....let me clarify....You are obviously an extremely talented grower. The fact that you can take the rules and bend them around (very impressively I might add) I would think would only be confusing to your average grower or noob. Take my word for it I couldn't do this in a million years and I don't consider myself a noob.....some experience yes but thats different from TALENT.....which is what I believe I'm seeing here.

Love the shouting to the newbs from the rooftops.

Wow. thankyou. Although, no matter how much i'd like to believe it is talent, I believe that this is a general rule of cultivation. Or at least should be.

I agree that it could be confusing to a noob, but in general noob's are confused anyway. there's a lot of misinformation on the web, and on this site. Although i hope that my regular pic's and feeding regimen would help convince people that roots are only important in as much as transporting nutes to the plant. I honestly believe they have no other use than that, and so far (touch wood) i'm proving that to be correct.

Once i get past the next couple of weeks, i'll relax... I had a plant die on me once half way through flower in dwc... it died because it's roots were strangled by the other plants that were sharing the container. I'm quickly approaching the end of week 3 and beginning of week 4. Once week 5 is out of the way I will feel that i have succeeded.

Thanks for the compliment, btw.

I will follow this thread carefully....I have had ALL sorts of "rootbound" issues in my hydro setup and would LOVE to be able to figure some of those problems out. I notice that my drip rings etc clog OFTEN with dead and dying roots....ones as you say that have no more use and don't need to be there.

The space issue alone with the root situation has HUGE implications in your expirement....and thats the rest of it aside (saving on nutes etc)

You are welcome.....call them like I see them.

i love this thread.

skunkushybrid said:

You see what i'm saying, yet you don't agree. Why not?

I say things the way I see them. Rootbound, as far as my experiment is showing, is a load of bullshit. I'll admit, the experiment is not over yet... but if it succeeds then i will shout it from the rooftops... that all the old rules are full of shit... and I shall tell noob after noob about my discovery.

In fact it was fdd' that first called bullshit on rootbound, I'm merely testing how far I can push it.

So far, I've saved money on medium and nutes... I suppose you could aslo count that smaller pots like these cost much less than the bigger ones... so technically there is money to be saved there too... although I already have big pots, so technically I've lost out a little by buying the smaller ones... which i think cost me no more than a £.

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He convinced me too, I've been doing an experiment also....I have been now been starting clones in solo cups(i grow in soil)for one week and then transplanting to one gallon bags for 2 weeks and then into bloom I keep them in the 1 gallon bags to harvest, I've had to start feeding and watering every day now which I don't mind....and my plants are just the same as they usually are many are even bigger and healthier, they enjoy the constant feeding and watering.......I used to flower in 3 gallon bags...now I'm seeing I can do the exact same thing in theses one gallon bags or better...but I'm spending 60% less on soil....that's a huge savings.....not to mention I have less soil to dispose of at harvest now...60% less that saves me money and labor...plus smaller bags are cheaper......this change to something I thought couldn't be done is going to save me $$$$$

So are you guys saying that the final yield is the same as if you were not working with and training the roots?

Weedhound said:

So are you guys saying that the final yield is the same as if you were not working with and training the roots?

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Well my plants are in 500ml containers, I used to grow in varying bigger pots, but never smaller than 3litres before. I kept a mother plant, well 2 mom plants in a 3 litre container for well over 10 weeks (the 10 weeks being a kind estimation). They are also in flower now, but have around 20 main tops each so the yield will be hard to judge.

The plants in the 500ml containers are clones of a strain that I've already grown a few times in the larger 3 litre containers. Usually after a 12 day veg' in the 3litre containers they would net me 1.5 to 2oz per plant depending on their position in the flowering area.

I actually vegged these for 18 days, till they were 15" tall before I placed them into flower. They are approaching 35" in height now and are flowering nicely. So far, no difference in size nor bud development, despite them being in not just a container a 6th of the size, but also a container that should be too small for them to finish in.

DAY 27 FLOWER

The tallest plant is now exactly 88cm high, and bud development is on target. I know I need to clean up in there, but the tight space I have to work in makes this difficult untill actual harvest day. Luckily its winter, and the insects are all either dead or dying... so the attacks on my leaves have stopped almost completely.

In the third pic', you can see my mother plant in the background. She has 20 heads and they are mostly keeping in line with the growth from my other plants. The mom plant is in a 3litre container, and was vegged for 10weeks (around about).

I also plain ph'd water fed them yesterday. Not because they needed just plain water but because I was too lazy to bother making up any feeds. I'm going to need to raise the light yet again...

GodDAMN that's impressive. Not only do you have them in those teeny little pots but the plants themselves look gorgeous and healthy. Beautiful!!

Ok....question....and forgive that it's sort of confusing....I'm not at all scientific.

If your theory is true then why do the plants in my hydro system keep growing huge roots? I run a waterfarm drip/dwc combo and my plants have access to nutes, h20 and EVERYTHING 24/7. Is the key simply providing the roots this certain amount of space and no more? You have them in RW cubes.....would this same approach work in a hydro medium that allows them access to nutes 24/7 or would periodic feedings be the best?