rootbound issues during veg

hey everyone, I have 3 plants that until the other day had been in 1 gallon pots since around August 30thl. after doing some topping and some defol to slow them down a little I began noticing a rapid decrease in their growth rate. When I pulled one out to investigate I could see that the roots had amassed themselves into a brick the shape of their container, which obviously was the problem(good root color though). Now they've just settled into their new 3 gallon containers/

The question is that I defoliated and topped them to the point that they are WAY too small to be potbound in even a 1 gallon. They are less than a foot. Is it because I used microrhyzzae? They're in FF Ocean Forest with perlite and coco thrown in btw. I see plants that are a foot or two tall growing out of solo cups fairly often, so wtf.

also, has anyone tried this idea of cutting the rootball into a small square(what some people do to re-veg) after a major defoliation? Not that I'd really do that. My main prob is that im trying to slow vegging plants down until I have more room in my flowering area. Its easy to slow growth rate of vegetating plant material, but not so easy it seems to slow the growth of roots. At this rate I'll need a 30 gallon containger for a silly 3 foot plant.

any help or input is appreciated. any trolls and mean people just fuck off now pls.

Ive had that problem before on a little larger scale with mother plants in larger pots.It seems like the best green healthy growth comes from plants that have continuous rootspace to fill out (for leafy vegetative growth,once budding the container size can stay the same) I think it's that even though a plant can be pruned down to a smaller size, it doesnt really reset the root zone to a smaller size, so if theyre already rootbound all those roots will still be compressed and not really able to provide the oxygen and nutrients that will support healthy new vegetative growth.

For trying to stall plants a bit before theyre able to go into flower (which should be avoided if possible), keeping them in the same pot and off to the side of the light source,or under some dim florescent lighting works. Transplanting into larger pots before they can go into flower will just encourage the new rapid growth and if it goes on for a while youll unfortunately be back where you were with the rootbound issue.

Using fabric pots helps too because the roots dont circle, they airprune when they hit the sides.

ebenezerfagglegold said:

after doing some topping and some defol to slow them down a little I began noticing a rapid decrease in their growth rate. .

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topped too much too soon

jesus of Cannabis said:

topped too much too soon

Click to expand...

how do you figure? seriously im not trying to be a smartass. I topped them all at the 6th or 7th node, and defoliated the 4 big fan leaves off of all of them. The idea was to mainline the plant into 4 tops (topping one more time after 6 or so more nodes.) Since the flower cycle isn't the time to sculpt a plant then why would topping at the 7 be too early?

if you take too much plant material, that help grow the plant, you are stunting the growth. Top. recover, top recover, top recover. its a cycle