Root Bound ?

[newknees]

Basically due to bad planning I have a couple plants that have been in 3 gallon pots about a month too long . The bottoms are a solid mat of roots and will be hard to separate without damage. I am going into 18 inch pots and am wondering what the effects of just dropping in as is would be ?

[Kingdiamond]

Ive gone through this I first try to loosen the root ball up a little before transplanting her and she will usually be fine in the new pot .

[pergamum362]

I would just rub them apart. Shell be alright.

[trichcycler]

I've cut the smaller pots apart and dropped the whole plant/rootball into its new container with no issues.

[newknees]

Thanks fellas, I will sleep better now.

[mibrains]

i have not tried this but a friend told me about it.

 

when a plant becomes devastatingly root bound -remove it from the current container after a good solid over watering and then try dunking it's root ball in a bucket of clean pure water a few times very gently and it will relax the root ball and many of the roots will drop out of the ball on their own without breaking them up...

 

not sure it matters until the plant is totally bound up... i usually just transplant them if they went to long in a veg pot and they expand into the new pot size just fine.. the stress comes from the time the roots are bound in the smaller pot.. as soon as they can reach out in the new space the plant will start to recover and grow rapidly again.

 

be aware if she was root bound for a long time she may have stress you haven't noticed yet.. so don't panic a week or two after you transplant her if she shows the signs of stress.. just make sure you give her a nice shot of mychos when you transplant and she will do the rest..

[pic book]

or, leave her in the pot, drill more holes in the bottom only, and surrround her with lava rock in nested-pot hydro 24 hour-flow.

[thaistick69]

Look into MicroKote,  its a easily available "paint" that you apply to the insides of your pots that prevents root bounding.... Commerical nurseries have been using it for years.   It has an amazing effect on root mass and growth of your plants;  I will not grow without it.      I am in no way affiliated with the company.   Learned about it on RIU.....

[trichcycler]

Is that paint made of copper?

 

My best products(besides an unrestricted outdoor garden) has been in root bound pots. I only use 1 gallon pots typically so the whole thing is root bound. I've seen evidence going both ways and didn't really decide to choose a way, its just how it worked out. some roots grow into the scrap dirt in the tray beneath  coming out of the grow bag holes a foot long. I have plopped the bag into a larger container and packed it with more dirt. the roots grow through the holes and reestablish.

 

the disadvantages I experience in one gallon 30-36" plants is watering frequency increase, plant and plant pot support. I've grown in up to a 25 gallon bag inside and see a huge difference in potential plant size, and potential bud harvest/flowering nodes, when compared to smaller size pots. After considering the resources needed to support anything larger than my 2-4 oz harvests is not necessary. When I can sell overages legally, that's another story. I grow for the variety, not the weight though, currently.

[jimmiej48]

I have been using 5 gallon pots with no problem..i have 9 pots all 5 gallon and the plants are healthy as can be ..cropped 2 plants last month and both over 2 zones ..and i want to say happy to be back after some family issues..

[abe supercro]

 

Basically due to bad planning I have a couple plants that have been in 3 gallon pots about a month too long . The bottoms are a solid mat of roots and will be hard to separate without damage. I am going into 18 inch pots and am wondering what the effects of just dropping in as is would be ?

If you're going right into flowering, I'd be reluctant to tear the roots much at all... they'll make their way out of being rootbound to access water in the rest of the new container. I deliberately keep certain plants rootbound to slow growth.

[pergamum362]

Lol...i just chop away at em..but i make sure the roots are always great. Chop at em at least once a week. Root bound plants produce lesser quality and quantity. Fact

[trichcycler]

 Root bound plants produce lesser quality and quantity. Fact

prove it ?

[pergamum362]

I dont need too. Just do a quick google search focusing mainly on journals. Common buddy, you really think a plant that is stressed its entire flowering cycle is going to produce the best quality meds it can? If so then dont even bother.

[trichcycler]

let's examine this instead.  

Let's take two 55 gallon drums and only plant one female veg plant in it. We'll let it rip under 18 hours light for months and months and months, or at least until the roots are pouring out of the bottom and side holes, and the mass of soil so intertwined with root it cannot be easily broken, a real good "rootbound" plant, a huge one at that.

 Somewhere towards its rootbound end we can plant another in the other drum and veg it for a couple months we'll say, certainly far from rootbound I think you'd agree?

 

Now flower both under 12/12 for the 60 or so days required for my favorite strain. In 60 days I guarantee the rootbound plant will not only produce wildy more than the non rootbound one next to it, and there will be no discernible difference in quality.

 

Stress is precisely what keeps life forms striving for life, feeding, seeking food, and yes, being good marijuana plants. A plant in hydro is less stressed than the one in dirt, for it does not need to seek out its resources, they are delivered.The same genetics in soil will be inherently more stressed searching for water and nutrients, awaiting the building blocks of the breakdown of organic material for its basal salts. the differences are vast, with experience in both. In hydro the rootball container is often very small compared to our dirt containers. I've seen monster plants growing in 6 inch rockwool cubes in ebb/flow, and they were most definitely rootbound. Outdoor cannabis is extremely stressed, with weather, pests, constant nutrient searching, water deficiencies, etc. these make the best plants ever, grown in a one gallon outdoor pot, or right in the ground.

 

I can agree that stuffing a plant in a cup full of dirt in a beer cup will not produce a whole lot of anything maybe. keep in mind though, that this plant is in a one gallon container, with roots trying to rip it apart, and was a huge quality producer, as all of my girls are. I've personally studied the differences in growth as it is related to the shape of the plant pot. there is no discernible difference in "quality" because the roots cannot grow any further. quantity can be affected however by changing plant pots size, shape, and veg time. The longer a plant vegges, the more "rootbound" it becomes, and the more it produces,not less. Plants grow to their available resources, and make the best of what they have.

 

Keep in mind your word "stressed" is subjective, and I only refer to stress as being in a rootbound container, not any other circumstance for sake of this discussion.

[pergamum362]

If your happy with it then thats all that matters i guess. I wont poke it anymore.

[trichcycler]

but what of my example of two like sized containers, one root bound, and one not, both flowered same time.....how will the quality be affected? 

[pergamum362]

Well im willing to bet that the stressed one wont be as potent, wont even look the same as the non stressed one. In fact im willing to bet that while there will be more of the rootbound plant buds, they will be fluffy or airy and unsitghtly compared to the latter.

[pergamum362]

Probably a few nanners here And there too.

[pergamum362]

And when you finally pull it out of the pot, that huge mass of intertwined roots at the bottom will probably be brown, dead, and stink.

[trichcycler]

fluffy buds from rootbound plant in 55 gallon drum?  fluffy buds a genetic disposition, and affected by light, temperatures, humidity issues.

Well im willing to bet that the stressed one wont be as potent, wont even look the same as the non stressed one. In fact im willing to bet that while there will be more of the rootbound plant buds, they will be fluffy or airy and unsitghtly compared to the latter.

 

nanners don't appear when roots hit the sides of a 55 gallon drum, unless poor genetics were chosen to begin with. A root bound plant is no more likely to express male counterparts than one in a 55 gallon drum.

Probably a few nanners here And there too.

 

 

And when you finally pull it out of the pot, that huge mass of intertwined roots at the bottom will probably be brown, dead, and stink.

this happens when there is an issue with plant health, drainage, not root bound. I've had the same one gallon basil plants in the same pots for two years, and harvest from them weekly. It would take a knife to seperate any dirt from the plant. roots are white and happy, smell like basil.

I've kept cannabis mother plants for eons in dirt, definitely rootbound, with no root rot, degradation in final product, even when I chose to grow them out.

 

you may be experiencing these issues because of other factors, but rootbounding is not the problem in the above matters. Its not that I don't believe you about root bound plants, but you boldly claimed a lower quality in root bound plants, a statement that deserves to be backed up. keep trying though, there may be some truth in here. I don't sell one gallon containers, fluffy bud fixers, root rot repair kits, and have no dogs in this race. Its not personal. I would double my pot size in a minute as soon as I saw proof of this.

[pergamum362]

Well man, do yourself a favor and double one of your pots. Theres nothing i can add, im not one to go thru and find the various articles from the most revered growers addressing the subject. But feel free to post any articles you may come accross if you do choose to use google. And well i really dont like arguing about growing, feelings get hurt.

[pergamum362]

Nanners appear with stress, rootbound is stressing. The whole idea of growing indoors is to prevent as much stress as possible....i suppose i could be wrong. Oh well. Let me know if you decide to do an experiment.

[beourbud]

Nanners appear with stress, rootbound is stressing. The whole idea of growing indoors is to prevent as much stress as possible....i suppose i could be wrong. Oh well. Let me know if you decide to do an experiment.

The whole idea of indoor oops is to keep the opp out of site and underground.....But things are changing.

 

The future is in Greenhouses.....you can't beat the Sun for quality, quantity or cost.

 

Indoor grows are obsolete

Edited March 15, 2014 by beourbud

[pergamum362]

Could be. Where a long way from obselete tho.