Hey everyone, finally got an account created.

I'm curious about the effects of not repotting for flowering, I mean just keeping it in the same small pot. What affect will this have on the plant. I realize I'd have to water and fertilize more, but would it help keep the plants shorter, and will it have a negative effect on my yield?

Thanks.

depends on how root bound it it before flowering if it not bad at all then your ok but if it's border line root covering the side, I would think you would have a little root damage that could affect overall budding depending on how bad the roots were hurt.

if it's in coco it would be just fine. i've seen 23 grams pulled out of a 16 ounce container with coco.


soil is a totally different... in soil your gonna need a bigger pot or else they won't have the room they need to flower optimally. yes it would both effect yield & height.

Would root damage affect the potency of the buds or just the yield?

been thinking about doing this just because.

Welcome LaMolta...greetings and all that.

How small of a container are you talking about bro? Is there a reason your wanting to stick to small pots? It would make sense for budsicles in a sea of green, I suppose, but you will be getting smaller plants in the end. Not to mention you'll be babysitting them with the watering can. It is difficult to regulate the wet dry cycle when in small pots, especially when flowering, and this can lead to all sorts of problems. With soil grows, the "rule of thumb" is 1 foot of height per gallon of soil. With coco, it's rather new and I'm not sure if there is a "rule of thumb" yet. But as the above post shows, that looks like a 2-3 foot plant in 16 oz (1/8th gallon). 23 grams isn't bad, if you have 30-40 of these going, or 10-15 in a scrog. Either way, they'll obviously need support.

The smallest I would feel comfortable recommending would be 1 gallon sized pots -- and smartpots at that, compared to regular nursery pots they can allow for a potentially increased yield, reduced problems, and easily maintained healthy root system; with smartpots, once the roots pass through the membrane, they automatically air prune instead of getting bound up inside the pot. Also, once you get it dialed in, they are super easy to bottom feed all at once, since smartpots are permeable. I sound like a smartpot salesman but I'm not. Smartpots grown with 100% coco in a 1 gallon smartpot would be the best way to go, imo. Roots love the coco and quickly fill in.

The best results for coco come from nutes by Botanicaire's Pure Blend Pro (PBP) line and then is used by automatic (ebb n flow usually) or hand watering.

I hand water and use natural fertilizers n whatnot, fwiw.

I'm looking at about 1 1/4 gal. buckets, got some room constraints so im looking to maximize space by using smaller buckets. I pulled up one of the clones that was discarded from the bunch chosen to flower and it's roots by the same rediculously long vegging state had already started climbing up the side of the bucket, if the others were at this point when flowering started, do you think they'll grow any taller or just stop? And if they do start to try and grow taller, what sorts of problems do you think I'll run into? I mean what would root damage do to a plant?
Thanks.

root damage will reduce overall health, vigor and ultimately yield. your roots won't be as able to get necessary oxygen, and the cramped quarters will make it more difficult to put out it's micro hairs to gather nutrients. they may get taller, they may stop growing altogether, or whatever the strain dictates... the deciding factor is how you tend to them.

"ridiculously long vegging state".. and that is? if you'd like to maintain the same pot size during flowering as veg, I would suggest, at the very least, trimming your roots before inducing flowering AND a vigorous pruning once budding begins.

Or use a much shorter veg time -- once clones root, you can induce flowering, but keep in mind, it'll start flowering when it's ready! you may have to trim the roots at some point during flowering but that's your call.

Vigorous pruning may be your friend with small pot sizes to increase final yield.

With all other conditions ideal, it should not effect potency.

Where's those microgrowers when you need one? Yeh, check out the microgrow thread for full sized micro ideas...

I'll throw in the caveat of root damage being an unintended, detrimental impact to the rooting system of a plant.

There is such a thing as 'root pruning' in which the roots are mechanically impacted and the results are not necessarily detrimental.

A veg state of several weeks, i mean these puppies were a good 30" before I shifted to flowering simply because the last batch took much longer then expected (no thanks to Arjan's Ultra Haze), normally I would most definitely have a much shorter veg state.

So what are the steps for properly pruning roots without causing any detrimental problems?

look into the bonsai method -- I think it's in pot pictures forum. I had a thread which detailed the root pruning method, but don't think it's around any longer.

what you do is remove the rootbound plant from it's pot, slice off the edges like crust off bread (1/2" from the sides at most), then replant in the same pot w/ a little bit more soil.

It's pretty easy, but I'd tack on a couple more weeks of finish time to contend with any 'shock'. water with a drop a superthrive or B vitamin complex to help ease the transition.

I have some photo's... somewhere... stand by.

For you buddy, for you... http://forums.cannabisculture.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1500609#Post1500609
... and anyone else, of course.

peace.