Urban Poison Grow - Day 20 - Plant Root Questions

Hello to all my fellow happy people out there. I have a question concerning my plant roots. First off, I need to give a few details of the grow so you will know what I am working with:




This is is my first indoor grow. My medium is Fox Farm Ocean Forest. I am growing in a cabinet with dimensions of 36" high, 36" wide, 24" deep (Cabinet has option of ninja/stealth mode which I find useful when I have company over in my small house) I am running CFLs; 7 45w 6500k & 2 55w 2700k bulbs. Oscillating fan runs with lights 18/6. Plants get watered every 3-5 days. Temperature average is around 75 degrees. Humidity is kept at an average of 50% during veg.




My question is about the roots protruding from the bottom of the pot. I don't want to transplant necessarily because I have limited grow room but I understand that the roots can be affected by light which in turn can stress the plant. I currently have 6 plants, 2 Urban Poisons and 4 mystery seeds, (from Nirvana) all on day 20. I plan to transplant the 4 mystery seeds outdoors and SCROG the 2 Urban Poisons inside my grow cabinet. I want to keep the 2 Urban Poisons in 1gal pots to keep them under control (36" height maximum).




So what do I do with the roots that are already coming out of the bottom drainage wholes in the pots? Do I prune them back every few days or let them turn hard and fall off themselves? Any advice from personal experience is welcomed. Thanks in advance!

it does sound like you're hitting the ceiling(so to speak) with your pots
i've had problems with pots < 2 gallons, at least with organic soil
bigger pots might be the simplest way to go, though your plants don't appear to be that large for a 1 gallon pot

Thank you for your reply growone. I would love to transplant into 2gal pots but this will make the plant sit up even higher and give me even less vertical grow room in my already limited space-- that is my delima. With that being said, I would love for someone to chime in that has a suggestion of how I can keep these roots under control without too much stress to my plants. I have one plant where the roots are already 6" out of the bottom of a 1gal pot on day 20! Man these plants are growing fast!

Time for you to study the art of Bonsai, as you need your plants at a certain height and no more, allow the plants to get o the height for your cab, then trim the roots every week or so, practice makes perfect

Hello Vostok, thank you for the kind advice. I actually just bought a bonsai tree that sits on my window sill lol so it's funny you mention that. I will definitely look into that, just didn't know if pruning the roots that over grow the pot would cause harm to my plants. I have experience with pruning, just never with roots or what the best practice was concerning this topic was. Thanks again for the replies, keep the great advice flowing

I have looked up the root pruning techniques for bonsai trees and it is quite interesting. It does seem to relate to root pruning for cannabis plants. With that being said, I think I have decided the best option for me right now. I think I will stay with the 1gal pots and just trim the roots coming out of the drainage holes and redirect them back into the soil. I think this should alleviate my problem. However, if there is a better idea I am most definitely open to other suggestions. Thanks guys.

A very very rich guy down my way collected bonsai for years but then they started dieing off, he knocked on my door as I was blazing up to complain about this, I was very interested on how he new about me, just a a lucky guess on his part and the healthy plants out front ....he said
Apparently he'd been cutting his excess roots with old nail clippers that lead to infection, sickness and death, I suggested that he see his root pruning as an operation, and that he keep the sterile clippers in a napkin, after washing in 10% bleach solution first ...it worked

But I also pointed out that if he did nothing, although untidy, these roots will aero prune, or just dry out and drop of in time

I went ahead and pruned the roots a couple of hours ago. I trimmed any roots protruding from the bottom of pot down to 1/2" in size. I then redirected the leftover root endings back into the pot to grow along the outside of the inside of the container instead of coming out the bottom drainage holes. I then proceeded to give them 6.3ph water at 2 1/2 cups per plant. This is the amount I use to receive 20% run off.

That is a very interesting story Vostok. I find that quite intriguing to know that plants can be that sensitive. Definitely a sound idea to keep everything clean and tidy. It's no different then what a hospital does. Infection and death would run rampant without proper sterilization. I do my best to keep things sterile in my grow room. I even go as far as cleaning the dust off my fan periodically. I sterilize with rubbing alcohol. Is there an advantage to bleach that I am unaware of?

I am too much of a clean freak to aero prune. Not to mention, to me the plant is wasting energy driving a root into air and or light only to have that part of the plant, that it used energy to create, die off anyway. Seems to me I could save the plant the wasted energy by pruning and redirecting them back into the pot. That is why I have elected to "LST" the roots if you will.

Pease keep the root topic going guys, let's hear it from some other peoples out there who would like to offer they're knowledge/experience on root systems of the cannabis plant. Thanks guys

Does anyone have any further techniques for pruning roots? Or any other tips and tricks? Please share. Thanks

i'll keep on topic, but can't share too much on root trimming since i haven't done it
i will say i grow in a similar space, 39 inches tall and have been able to mature plants with 2 gallon plants in that height
and that's with out any training, though i have done some trained grows
36 inches is a good amount of headroom, not perfect, but good, though yields tend to be modest

I understand with a height limit of 36" that LST is a must for me. I just topped my 2 Urban Poisons and FIMed 1 of the 4 mystery seeds from Nirvana. The other 3 plants just aren't quite ready to be topped. With that being said, this is day 2 after trimming roots and redirecting all roots on 6 plants and they seem to be doing great! Check the pic just taken this morning.

glad for your good results, so many ways to go in this game, i've had good luck with nirvana and interested in nirvana grows

Thanks for all the replies and interest grow one. Yeah man, those Urban Poisons are good genetics, they are looking very strong and healthy. Starting to smell a little in the back room already though. Any suggestions for masking the scent?

I love Urban Poison, its a really great variety with a taste and effect I can't get enough of!

if you're having an isue now, it's probably going to get much worse, those plants aren't at the stinky phase yet
my own method has been to literally grow one modest sized plant, and keep the grow temps down, a hot grow is a smelly grow
the usual recommends are ona gel, charcoal filters, and in the extreme case, an ozone generator
but i don't have expereince with them

Brian Savage said:

I love Urban Poison, its a really great variety with a taste and effect I can't get enough of!

Click to expand...

Hello Brian, thanks for sharing. After researching tons of strains, I landed on Urban Poison as the high described was exactly what I was looking for; "Indoor female version of Durban Poison. Predominantly Sativa. Aroma of juniper berries, trippy high." -Nirvana Have you personally grown Urban Posion or just tried it? If you have grown it, are their any useful tips you would care to share?

growone said:

if you're having an isue now, it's probably going to get much worse, those plants aren't at the stinky phase yet
my own method has been to literally grow one modest sized plant, and keep the grow temps down, a hot grow is a smelly grow
the usual recommends are ona gel, charcoal filters, and in the extreme case, an ozone generator
but i don't have expereince with them

Click to expand...

Thank you for all of your continued useful input Growone. I really appreciate you taking the time to share some knowledge and insight with me on my indoor grow. And you are absolutely right, I have noticed that the hotter the grow room is the more the scent radiates. I came in my house yesterday and got drop kicked in the face by a skunk!! hahaha

So I figured there is no way I am going to be able to flower in my cabinet. My ninja cabinet is NOW designated for Veg only (mainly because of lack of odor control but also because of the 36" height maximum. I did a little Amazon shopping last night and purchased a 4ft x 2ft x 5ft grow tent. I also purchased an inline exhaust fan with charcoal scrubber to handle temps and smells. I hated spending the extra money but I gotta get my first grow right. I'm sure it will be worth it. I still plan to SCROG my plants in the grow tent. I want to keep them short and bushy plus this will help with light distribution since I am using CFL's.

Here are a couple of pictures of where the plants stand this morning; Day 26. Picture 2 shows two new tops coming in one week after topping UP1.

good luck with the charcoal, ona can get pricey from what i've seen, and ozone comes with some hazards