Can a plant be identified as a runt at 3 weeks old?

[Phillybonker]

Last season one of the plants I put out in the bush turned out to be a runt. I would like to avoid that happening again. I put my plants out into the bush at 3 weeks old and I was wondering if it's possible to identify a 3 week old plant as a runt so I can remove it from the grow?

 

[Phytoplankton]

Most of the time we cause runts, by overwatering, poor soil, too much/not enough nutes, etc, occasionally they're just genetic duds. No, you really can't tell if it's gonna be a runt, of course a slow growing plant will be evident, but often once a runt finally gets going I've found they often end up as big or bigger than faster starters. With Auto's, yes, it's pretty evident if it's a runt, and they just don't have time to catch up. I'm sure you may get conflicting answers. Maybe the better thing to do is decide how big at three weeks you want the plant to be, then discard any that don't meet your standard.

 

[Phillybonker]

Most of the time we cause runts, by overwatering, poor soil, too much/not enough nutes, etc, occasionally they're just genetic duds. No, you really can't tell if it's gonna be a runt, of course a slow growing plant will be evident, but often once a runt finally gets going I've found they often end up as big or bigger than faster starters. With Auto's, yes, it's pretty evident if it's a runt, and they just don't have time to catch up. I'm sure you may get conflicting answers.

Yeah I have noticed one or two slow starters in the past that grew up to be big vigorous plants.

Maybe the better thing to do is decide how big at three weeks you want the plant to be, then discard any that don't meet your standard.

That's an idea. I'll be germinating more than I need anyway. Thanks