After a few years of outdoor grows, i m finally going indoor.

so far in my grows, i ve been repoting at different stages. But this time around i want to start the beans straight at 11L pots and have em finish in those pots. I wont let them veg for long. Basically a 4 plant sog.


(All mix soil. Beans will be germed in distilled water and then put straight on all mix)


I figured, less stress on the plants from repoting, less mess in the grow tent.

Plus i do believe that -genetically- when the seedling starts to grow roots, it grows bigger if it doesnt find "resistance" (from small pots) in the first 2-3 weeks.

Any thoughts on the subject are appreciated.

Your rootball will be less well formed and more stretched out through the compost. This means less yeld than could be had.
You also risk souring the compost, particularly through the early stages.
There is a reason why just about all gardeners, nurserymen and plantsmen up and down the country pot on in small stages - it works better

I used to plant my seeds out in 10L buckets, no potting up. Then, thanks to OT1 and my good lady wife (an excellent gardener herself) I learned about incremental potting up. Never looked back, the results spoke for themselves.

thanks AL

What Arnie says is right on the money Peace Seeker as I used to do the same,start small seedlings in big pots,a bad practice that was masked

by me using lots of perlite at the time and me thinking I was clever!

Nurserys throughout the land pot up in stages for many different kinds of plant,it really is beneficial compared to possibly detrimental

if planting straight into large pots,lots of horror story's on record at uk420 to put you off the idea.


All the best with your 4 plant sog.

I use 11L pots start to finish but that's with passive hydro, it's a no no with soil.

The soil holds too much water for a single pot to work. I'm over simplifying here but the soil goes wet/dry/wet/dry and the roots drink/breathe/drink/breathe.

With the correct size pot the 'dry out time' matches the size of the plant.

You could always ditch the soil and fill the 11L pots with perlite, that works just fine for me.

Click to view attachment

a bold statement lazi, a very bold statement

cheers everyone for the feedback

so, would a 1L pot would fine for starting? Keep em for a month of vegging under HPS and then repot to 11L?

Or should i go for 3 pots (3", 6", & 11L) ?

3 pot ups with those sizes should be fine Peace Seeker.

3">6">11 ltr.

Since i started growing i always potted straight into 11l pots, just put my split seed straight into the pots . Does it really make a big difference ?

well IMO yes it make a big difference, first 2 grows i did no potting up, just put straight into 11ltr pots.
buds were ok at end but there was no root system at all in pots just some scrawney little things that only
used a small percentage of pots.

but this grow i have potted on 3 times and now in final 11ltr pots again but this time the roots are fucking
thick white furry healthy looking roots and they are also coming outa holes at bottom of pots,
never had nothing like that on previous grows.

so i reckon it helps alot. after all GOOD ROOTS = GOOD BUD ...............tcc

Cheers guys, i will deffo do this on my next grow. Always learning

I think it depends on if you rely on nutriets passing over a root or if you want the root to form a relationship with the soil life.the latter would prefer the 11ltr pot from the off providing it's alive that is

Could you try that again in English please,really don't understand what you are saying?

Are you thick?

I'm thick can you explain to me because I haven't got a clue what you said. Maybe it's beyond my limited intelligence, but hey... give it a try.

oops sorry bout that! Must remember not to post when I've been at the skull attack!
What I meant was if you got a good healthy soil you could use the 11ltr pots, i'm not recomending it mind you. I've planted rooted cuttings into 15ltr pots they take about the same time to get to flower they just concentrate on putting roots down for a while so top growth seems slow but isn't really.
With getting a good root ball and potting up the roots are in such abundance that the soil life takes a back step as the plant won't really be calling on their services so much because it can get the nutes that wash over it's root, plus every time you pot up you destroy some fungal thread.
Well that's what I think, could be completely wrong mind you.

Edit to say wasn't calling you thick chooba it was more aimed at dr rockster for asking me to put it in english, still out of order tho

No, but you are arrogant, rude and offensive.

Now, to get the roots to form a decent relationship in the compost with the microbes, starting in a big pot is Not the best way, at all. The roots will simply take a dive to the base and stay there ignoring 75% of the compost. This is why we pot up in gentle stages, allowing the roots to penetrate the compost fully and thoroughly.

Have you read the site regs? I should, if I were you.

Arnold your just saying that to cheer me up! Xx

The roots will shoot down and hit the bottom where it hits the pot or pokes through the holes, the plant picks up on it and sends out more roots to have a go, it's like topping a plant it sends out side shoots, so after the same time taken to pot up through stages( or there about) the plant will have established a nice root system and the parts that the roots haven't will have fungal threads coursing through cycling the nutrients back to the root

anyone ever tried air pruning? That's supposed to stimulate compact root growth (like topping the roots) but I've never really looked into it much. For the record in coco I go cube > 3ltr > 6.5 ltr final pot in wilma system. Not sure if all the same rules apply in organics though, so the pot on might be more important.

No. I wrote it because I am fed up to the back teeth with folks ignoring the regs and doing what they please, leaving us Mods the mess to clear up.
Clear enough??
Cross? You bet ...
And you can keep your kisses. Only one person kisses me, and you aint she!


Not in my experience. I spent years growing in 10Litre buckets with no pot up. I would never go back, the roots I see now are ina different league. And I don't have to worry about sour compost either. Why should cannabis be different from other plants?

there you go then no problemo! You had troubles with you 10ltr buckets, perhaps you cocked up? I have no problems with planting strait into 15ltr pots with cuttings, I've planted seeds in there as well (same pot as the cutting is in) but didn't want them growing in there so I pulled them up but allready their root had gone deep. One thing that could be the difference between our experience is that the soil I planted into was from a previous grow and was left intact so it was healthy and full of microbes. Anyway it's all about different experiences and taking from them what you like
Xx

hi peace seeker - i think the answer you're looking for is that there are potential problems with going straight into a big pot (sour compost, etc) but that the practice in itself isn't going to cause probs. for the BEST results tho, i'd recommend potting up in stages

Will you please lay off the kisses? I am not inclined your way, and frankly do not see the point.

Whilst potting up directly into a large pot that has a thriving microbial community may work on some occasions most folk would be better advised generally to put up in stages. This will result in a much better formed root ball where the plant is exploiting the total volume of the pots, one of the main benefits I've heard from this method is that the plant concentrates on making many fine feeder roots rather than a big tap root to secure it in place.

I've noticed an obvious difference when I've been forced to pot up a plant early due to timing restrictions and it's been moved on to a bigger pot before it's filled up it current one. It never fills the new pot in quite the same way that a fully rooted out plant would

What is so bold about suggesting an 11L pot of perlite? There's guys growing in similar sized pots with coco coir, no-one calls them bold.

As a medium, perlite is as good as any imo, no fungas gnats to fight.

im potting straight into 11l this time round an ive done it before using coco. it doesnt seem to bother the roots an works pretty well
i have done it in soil but read in a few places its a bad idea for a number of reasons, coco seems to be ok though an ive read in a lot of places its good.
but yea i wouldnt recomend it in soil although mine did well when i did it a few years back.

I agree, I still prefer to pot up but have been experimenting with re using soil having just cut the plant out and left a while, pop the cutting in water shallow at first and then hit it with a tea. I've been finding it gives good results but I wouldn't recommend people do it, like I've said.

Hey Arnold, what are you wearing?

Edit because I'm a tad concerned about the perlite lazi, it tends to move around alot when watering and this tears the roots plus it floats, saying that I have never tried it so who am I to say

Well, i pot up in stages cos thats what works for me ....(I also don't like making mistakes that cost me time and money...so that's why I read the knowledge of those whom have already made those mistakes and then use it wisely ..)
On the note of roots, I have pruned them at potting up time to experiment on whether this would give a better yield, (as I thought more fine, nutrient gathering roots would be developed) and all I can say is that it had no adverse effects apart from one which I guessed would be the case anyhow and that is; it does check the plants for a few days, but they soon returned to full growth......
On potting up though I always water well in and use maxicrop in the mix to settle 'em in.

Yeah it has its problems, as does other media, the usual thing of picking something with faults you can live with. Main one is the plant falling over when the media gets dry. I feed them every day so don't encounter that. I'm starting to prefer the Fytocell but it works out at £4 a pot rather than just under £2 a pot for the perlite.


Where I think it could be really useful is as a standard to judge other stuff by. 2 growers, say 1 organic soil, 1 doing bubblers. If they both did 1 extra plant in perlite (common enough and always the same) and compared the results then you'd have a common denominator to evaluate organic soil v dwc. Does that make sense? Am a bit blitzed.


Re. the comment about about air pruning, I have a 5L air pot going at the mo. Seemed to have the edge early on but not now at 3 weeks into flower, it is slightly less than half the media of the other pots though. Difficult to say for sure, probably falls within the variance of seed plants.

As with all of this, what you know and are used to is the best way to go, you could grow them in glass marbles if you put the time in to learn the best routine for them. Can't stop messing about though, will be trying an autopot soon.

The pic is the results of my first ever scrog, about 30 litres of bud in all, 400w cmh for veg, 600w Grolux for flower. nowt but perlite in 11L pots, lucas formula every day, no flushing.

im just saying we're in the organic compost forum

and most people who post in here are dirt growers

didnt mean anything by it m8

Ah I see...I tend to click on 'new posts' and not read the forum title.

Ooops, sorry.