Potting up- Why?

[Cajafiesta]

Hello all,

 

I've been doing some head scratching lately.  Since my arrival here at uk420, I've been having consistent humbling experiences.  I find myself looking at "situations" differently and realizing how dense I've been.  Ignorance will give you quite a bit of false confidence.  

 

What I'm saying is, I've got some Dunning-Kruger going on full force over here. 

 

 

I've been growing in soil/compost in fabric pots with applications of compost tea and liquid fish.  

 

 

I've been ignorantly growing for a year or two, just sort of accepting that I was " doing a decent job" because I always produce flower that works.  But it's generally pretty sad looking by the time the plants get around to the end of flower.  I believe mobile nutrients are being sucked up to the point of the "tank being on empty" by the time flower is over.  

 

 

I've always grown in one pot from start to finish.  I've never potted up, as I didn't see the logic in it.  I theorized that providing tea would be " more than enough" to keep the soil in an acceptable state with regard to available nutrients.  My plants don't agree with that statement. 

 

 

It occurs to me that, perhaps, I've been monumentally dumb.  The more I consider it, the more it makes sense that, in addition to providing new space for root growth, potting up provides fresh soil.  It's entirely possible that providing a soil recharge ( or lacking a soil recharge) could be a massive impact on the plants health.

 

 

Is it common or accepted practice, anywhere in this universe, to stay in one pot from start to finish?  Am I an idiot? 

 

I've tried to chase my current plants back into health, but they're pretty resistant to come "back around" from what I believe is a Nitrogen and Phorphorous deficiency, at the moment.  I've been feeding Tea (bokashi, worm castings, mushroom compost, alfalfa, kelp etc ) once a week, I top dressed with some worm castings and I fed some liquid fish once.

 

I can't help but think I'm chasing the issue illogically, though.  Why go through all the fray of adding organic amendments when I could have just given the fuckers new, freshie soil as the main nutrient support.

 

 

I can't help but think I could have avoided this headache and had much happier plants if I had provided new soil at the light flip, "potted up" as it were.

 

 

Any insight is welcome. Feel free to have a laugh at my expense.  I think I've been a bit dense. 

 

Thanks!

Edited September 18, 2021 by Cajafiesta

[blackpoolbouncer]

Unless your growing autos it is accepted that you must pot up in at least a reasonable amount of stages. 

 

If you grow a young plant in a big pot or unsuitable size you are asking for trouble. Because the plant isn't removing moisture from the unrooted compost this quickly become anaerobic and sour. Leading to further issues such as affecting uptake of nutrient, ph of media etc. 

 

When you pot up in stages this allows a rootball to fill each pot as it goes meaning you have a consistently full pot of roots to prevent the above. 

It creates a healthier, stronger and denser rootball, faster growing plants. 

 

A vast array of reasons to be honest. I could waffle all afternoon. You don't need to go mad but as a general rule you can double your volume each time or a little more if you know what your doing. 

 

So say. 0.5l to 1.5l to 3l to 7.5l to 15l depending how far you go.

 

 

Edit to add. Generally you spend 10-14 days in each pot in-between pot ups. This is how long it takes to properly root each stage. There's enough food in to sustain the plant in this period with most full strength composts.

 

Your last pot up is timed to be 10-14 days before you flip so the day you flip your pot is already fully rooted. Although roots continue to grow for the first few weeks of flower its good practice to have that rootball well established so you don't end up with root rot etc from the situation laid out at the top

Edited September 18, 2021 by blackpoolbouncer

[Guest anarchycamp]

I generally pot up twice, once from being in a jiffy/cube etc into a 1L(they'll generally sit there for about a month) and then I panic and pot up again into an 8L ish for 2/3 weeks while the previous grow finishes it's last couple of weeks.

 

People pot up autos in their finals commonly though!

Edited September 18, 2021 by anarchycamp

[DeltaMelter]

Unless they are Autos you should pot-up. Depending on your final pot size - for example, I aimed to finish in 6.5L pots so started in 0.5L then potted-up to 1 Litre then a week or so later potted up to 3L then a week after that potted up to 6.5L final.

 

It took five weeks from seed into final pots and as they are already rooted they only needed another week in the final pots and they were good to flower.

 

Potting-up gives you lots of advantages, you can change the soil for one - starting with potting soil then moving up to something stronger, nevermind the rootzone growth and keeping your watering stable.

 

@blackpoolbouncer beat me to it

[DeltaMelter]

You get much better roots and more roots = more fruits

 

This was after just 1 week in a 3 Litre pot

 

[blackpoolbouncer]

Just now, anarchycamp said:

 

People pot up autos in their finals commonly though!

Different kettle of fish

[Cajafiesta]

Thanks for the input everyone!

 

@blackpoolbouncer

The anaerobic thing makes complete sense. That's a potential explanation for why my plants always end up showing what I believe to be N and P deficiency and wont bounce back.  They probably can't uptake due to acidity.   

 

 

Thanks for the Saturday morning enlightenment, everyone. 

 

Everything stated makes perfect sense.  I know where to go from here, now.  

 

It's wild how you can just totally miss the logic in something.  I'm a relatively smart dude, but for whatever reason, the "obviousness" of this totally missed me.   

 

 

Onward and Upward.

 

 

Thanks again!

[Cajafiesta]

19 minutes ago, blackpoolbouncer said:

Different kettle of fish

You guys put fish in kettles?  Fish tea?  I mean, who drinks fish tea?  I dunno about that, man...

 

 

Y'all UK folks are weird 

[mister phlegm]

 

24 minutes ago, DeltaMelter said:

Unless they are Autos you should pot-up. Depending on your final pot size - for example, I aimed to finish in 6.5L pots so started in 0.5L then potted-up to 1 Litre then a week or so later potted up to 3L then a week after that potted up to 6.5L final.

 

I have roughly se same pot size, sounds like a roughly equivalent veg period (?) but grow autos. I hope you don't mind me using your grow as a comparison.

 

I usually pot into finals because I am lazy and the final pot size is small enough to get away with it, but it feels like some of the advantages of potting up should carry over to autos. I'm quite happy accepting potting up is better but I don't get the difference between (roughly) our grows where you pot up three times and I don't pot up once and how it relates to auto vs photo. I know very little about photoperiod growing so I am probably missing something simple.

 

ups @Cajafiesta if you've been banging out harvests on the reg you must be doing something right. Improving is good but don't knock what you've already done, you have a base to work from and growing is only ever as competitive as you want it to be.

Edited September 18, 2021 by mister phlegm

[blackpoolbouncer]

Just now, Cajafiesta said:

You guys put fish in kettles?  Fish tea?  I mean, who drinks fish tea?  I dunno about that, man...

 

 

Y'all UK folks are weird 

No we don't. It's a very old saying. 

It just basically means "that's a different thing altogether" 

 

Like saying "I like to ride a pushbike but riding a motorbike is a different kettle of fish" is the same as "I like to ride a bike but riding a motorbike is totally different altogether" 

[blackpoolbouncer]

@mister phlegm because with an auto your trying to root out usually 10-15litre+ pots in 3 or 4weeks before pistols show up and flower is already well underway. It would take a photoperiod plant twice that period to root the same size pot. 

 

By the time a photo has rooted a 15l pot ready to flip some autos will be just 3 weeks from finishing in the same size pot. If your plants aren't growing that hard and it's 24 days between pot upside auto has nearly finished

 

Autos still really benefit from one pot up. Start in a small pot and pot up to final at 10-14 days. Autos grow in fast forward compared to vegging photos.

Edited September 18, 2021 by blackpoolbouncer

[Boojum]

Just now, Cajafiesta said:

You guys put fish in kettles?  Fish tea?  I mean, who drinks fish tea?  I dunno about that, man...

 

 

Y'all UK folks are weird 

 

 

Originally the word kettle just meant a big pot for boiling stuff in, so you'd put fish, or other things that you cook by boiling in a kettle It's only recently that the word has come to mean specifically something to boil water in for tea

 

As far as potting up goes I've always thought (perhaps mistakenly ) that it allows the roots to fill the space better, if you put the plant in a small pot the roots grow out to the edges then branch off to fill the space, then once they are starting to get dense at the edges you pot up and it goes again, out to the edges then back to fill the space. If you pot up straight into a big pot the roots don't fill the same space as efficiently. That's always what I thought, anyway.

[Cajafiesta]

40 minutes ago, blackpoolbouncer said:

No we don't. It's a very old saying. 

It just basically means "that's a different thing altogether" 

 

Like saying "I like to ride a pushbike but riding a motorbike is a different kettle of fish" is the same as "I like to ride a bike but riding a motorbike is totally different altogether" 

  I figured it meant something along those lines.  I'm just "Taking The Piss."   Did I use that correctly?   I think I did! hahaha

[silvester growdrobe]

Yeah, you did

[Military Grade]

3 hours ago, Cajafiesta said:

You guys put fish in kettles?  Fish tea?  I mean, who drinks fish tea?  I dunno about that, man...

 

 

Y'all UK folks are weird 

I wondered how BioBizz made their Fish Mix