Pot size

[cannilingus]

For a long time, i have been using 4 gallon pots, for my soiless grows. alternating, with five gallon smart pots.
I just got a hold of four, 7 gallon pots. while not seeming that much bigger, when i place the four inside the seven, i have four "papaya" plants, im going to put in the sevens, to see how i do. not really a good test, as this will be the first real grow on papaya, as these are the cuttings off the original seed plant. my yields never seem to grow that much, regardless what i change. lol. but, i was told to go to these sevens. any predictions, on the outcome?

 

[Emilya Green]

For a long time, i have been using 4 gallon pots, for my soiless grows. alternating, with five gallon smart pots.
I just got a hold of four, 7 gallon pots. while not seeming that much bigger, when i place the four inside the seven, i have four "papaya" plants, im going to put in the sevens, to see how i do. not really a good test, as this will be the first real grow on papaya, as these are the cuttings off the original seed plant. my yields never seem to grow that much, regardless what i change. lol. but, i was told to go to these sevens. any predictions, on the outcome?

When you put your plants in the 7 gallon containers, give them an extra two weeks to grow into them, and I think you will see a definite improvement. I purposely ran 5 gallon and 7 gallon plants together on this run to see that difference, and based on what I am seeing I think you can expect to get 25-50% more yield from the larger containers... at least that is what is happening in my tent at this very minute.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Ye a lot of people mention larger pots will aid in yield aka more root mass so they say... i some times think, some may go over the top a little on pot size & how big you want to grow the plants once stretch is factored in plus total head room you have with total length of veg to make suitable yield.

I'm a big fan of air pots.

Basically works on air pruning the roots to create a more fibrous root system, the more roots mean extra uptake of nutrients which helps in greater yield. (avoids root balling also)

More likely this is why people say larger pots are better/more roots but how long does it really take in veg to fill a larger pot with roots ?


Well i only used 6.5 litre air pots myself that is about 1.5 gallon roughly with a 400w hps on average achieve 2 oz dry per plant /+ & had better results with the odd strain or 2 in the past. Also used 2 litre standard pots normally getting around 1 oz dry per plant... so ye some thing to think about !



From what i remember from your past set up you was using 2 x 600w hps in cool tubes, this might of changed by now as it was some 18 months ago you mentioned this !

It should be quite adequate to gain suitable results with



So it may lead to environmental conditions grown in/with which may lead to a lower yield & assuming you are with in suitable realms of temp/rh you should be fine & includes light off period also !

But might be related to an air flow problem due to room size & exhaust fan size to provide suitable quantity of air exchange per hour or how you have exhaust or intake set up...

 

[cannilingus]

i have, and had, two lights. one 600, and was running the other ballast down to 600. i have used the five gallon smart pots. a little improovenment, but, this time, in those, i am still getting less than two oz per plant. same as when i was using the 4. and, before that, the 3. so. no real difference. turned up the one light to 1000 watts. not any difference. odd, huh? changes nutes. no diff, either. so. the same issue. going to do the seven gallons pots. tomorrow, am going out to a freinds, with two of the outdoor, to give him. one, he is planting in his unused side of his chicken coop. so, no nutes needed there. lol. i have what i think, is like a 20. may try that one.

 

[Emilya Green]

In two months of veg, it is pretty easy to max out a 3 or 5 gallon container at around 2 to 2.5 oz. To get much larger yield than that you almost have to take advantage of a 7 or 10 gallon container and to do this, you really have to veg a bit longer to allow the plant to grow into the shoes it is wearing. Because growth happens exponentially in a healthy plant, there really is no magic formula to this other than you can figure that every 2 weeks of additional veg after 5 weeks will approximately double your eventual yield, if you have a container big enough to handle it.

 

[Papageno]

Also the type and ratio of mix matters. Below you can see there is two layers to the soil. The deeper black one is a lot more dense in roots. but that one is also very hot so you can't have too much of it. Growing that method you want 10 gallon pots. I just ran 7 bellow and am regretting it. But I am running 3 on the clones and am very happy. So it all depends on how long or big you want the root ball which really is the majority of the point of veg. The flowers will get as big as the root mass allows period.

3 gallon Clones...28" 1 week in veg, 4.5 weeks bloom. I bet the 3 gallon will be fine for this plant which is a 12 week blooming clone.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Ye puzzling on yield ?

Mmm the only other thing which i can think off is reflector design iirc you used the cool tubes the original models had pretty poor light foot print & i believe they have a newer version out with a better reflector from what i'm lead to believe.

Reflector choice is quite important & mostly over looked.

This is my very first reflector/hood used an open ended type as you can imagine you may well get a lot of light loss through the open ends just bouncing of the tent walls etc going all over the place, just wasted energy really not going where we want it ! Never really got more than 1.5 oz with this reflector over a few different strains grown.

So i upgraded to a closed style hood no light loss with this as the light is all directed down like a torch beam onto my plants, more likely say since running this type of hood my yield has increased by 25% aprox.

Whilst i agree larger pots may help increase yield & i may off gone off track with some suggestions but other areas need to be looked at which might be lowering yield.

 

[Papageno]

I did run 15 gallons recently over about a 4 month period. Although happy with the results, and there were roots throughout it, I will likely not not use a pot that big for anything less than 1/4 of my SCROG.

But yes lighting is the most important thing fo sho.

 

[Emilya Green]

Proper airflow is also hugely important. I enjoy a 3-5x air exchange per minute in my tent as well as having a strong oscillating fan. My grows turned into the real deal once I got all the fans in place and installed my modified Raptor hood. A big 98% reflective hood really makes a big difference and sends all that light right down at the plants... that is, if you don't get lazy and forget to clean the glass regularly. They say dirty glass between the plants and the bulbs can cost you 10% of your light.

All of these things added together, and so many other little things that experienced gardeners do out of habit... they really do make a difference over time.

 

[Papageno]

@FDuck

Oh I think you were asking about yield on that little bugger? We shall see. I was going to do a "normallish" type grow but midway I found out I need to move. Since I can't grow these out the way I want I am just throwing in clones (I would have spaced out) in to fill the gaps and close up shop.

So we shall see but the mother eventually filled in too. She is a 12 weeker and really takes her sweet ass time.


Maybe I misunderstood.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

@FDuck

Oh I think you were asking about yield on that little bugger? We shall see. I was going to do a "normallish" type grow but midway I found out I need to move. Since I can't grow these out the way I want I am just throwing in clones (I would have spaced out) in to fill the gaps and close up shop.

So we shall see but the mother eventually filled in too. She is a 12 weeker and really takes her sweet ass time.


Maybe I misunderstood.

Na ya alright VI, it was a slight misunderstanding & was referring to cannilingus yield problem, i can see why you thought that tho


Even tho different pot sizes have little effect for the fellow so far i kind of thought perhaps a minor technical issue might be causing the problem it is just identifying it.

Hence comments on air flow & the latter reflector design being of question !


Emilya is correct about dirty glass even standard open reflectors get dirty over time & may need a clean once in awhile

 

[cannilingus]

i did transplant four papayas into the four seven gallons. the mother of them,the "seed plant", i harvested today. smells like they say. "whiskey pipe tobacco". yield was low. but, me and seed plants go thru that. the cuttings, are allways nicer. way nicer. i do have a seed plant, that looks fabulous, tho. huge. a "blackberry". she is in a reg four gallon. but is healthy. too bad my smoking days are over. no more pot for me. at least smoked. my venting, is great. my glass, i clean. but, thanks for the heads up . been a few months, since wiped them out.