Michael Hunt
Well-Known Member
Hey everyone,
I have done quite a bit of searching on this topic and cant find much info that pertains to my situation. We have a single plant in a 5 gallon bucket with two large air discs. Growing under a Mars Hydro TSW2000 in a 3x3 tent. We run GH Flora series nutes with calmag and hydroguard added from Botonicare. Being my first grow in 10 years things were a little shaky to start. PH fluctuations, trying to use liquid ph kits (finally got a real meter), a few burnt leaves, and some ph lockout issues. She's finally cruising right along and about 1 week into flower now.
She started from seed and was topped very early on. But we let her veg for a very long time while waiting for our flower light to arrive (damn covid shipping delays). Like 9-10 weeks long. And she is HUGE. She takes up every bit of the 3x3 canopy. I have to squeeze her arms in to get the big girl out of the tent for her daily water check and top off. The roots have made it to the bottom of the bucket and are starting to form to the shape of the bucket. It now looks like a cylinder of solid roots squeezing out of the bucket like a cork coming out of a wine bottle. she's starting to run out of volume in the bucket for water and can barely fit 2 gallons in there without it bring the water level up to the bottom of the net pot. Every time i have to refill the water she wilts until the level drops to about 4 inches in the bottom of the bucket (roughly 1 gallon).
Considering 2 options to address this issue.
Option #1: Buy a bigger 7 gallon bucket. Pros: more space for roots. larger reservoirs are easier to stabilize as i'm sure most of you already know.
Cons: i would be losing a good bit of already decreasing canopy height. She's already a solid 3' tall from the top of the bucket and only 10 days into flower.
Option #2: prune the roots back some. This makes me nervous being into flower already. She's already showing tons of pistils and i would hate to stress her towards a more masculine outcome.
I'll try to get some pics up tonight.
If anybody here has any input i would love to hear it, good bad or otherwise. Thanks!
I have done quite a bit of searching on this topic and cant find much info that pertains to my situation. We have a single plant in a 5 gallon bucket with two large air discs. Growing under a Mars Hydro TSW2000 in a 3x3 tent. We run GH Flora series nutes with calmag and hydroguard added from Botonicare. Being my first grow in 10 years things were a little shaky to start. PH fluctuations, trying to use liquid ph kits (finally got a real meter), a few burnt leaves, and some ph lockout issues. She's finally cruising right along and about 1 week into flower now.
She started from seed and was topped very early on. But we let her veg for a very long time while waiting for our flower light to arrive (damn covid shipping delays). Like 9-10 weeks long. And she is HUGE. She takes up every bit of the 3x3 canopy. I have to squeeze her arms in to get the big girl out of the tent for her daily water check and top off. The roots have made it to the bottom of the bucket and are starting to form to the shape of the bucket. It now looks like a cylinder of solid roots squeezing out of the bucket like a cork coming out of a wine bottle. she's starting to run out of volume in the bucket for water and can barely fit 2 gallons in there without it bring the water level up to the bottom of the net pot. Every time i have to refill the water she wilts until the level drops to about 4 inches in the bottom of the bucket (roughly 1 gallon).
Considering 2 options to address this issue.
Option #1: Buy a bigger 7 gallon bucket. Pros: more space for roots. larger reservoirs are easier to stabilize as i'm sure most of you already know.
Cons: i would be losing a good bit of already decreasing canopy height. She's already a solid 3' tall from the top of the bucket and only 10 days into flower.
Option #2: prune the roots back some. This makes me nervous being into flower already. She's already showing tons of pistils and i would hate to stress her towards a more masculine outcome.
I'll try to get some pics up tonight.
If anybody here has any input i would love to hear it, good bad or otherwise. Thanks!
Didn't even think about just chopping the lid. The only issue what that would be fitting a 5 gallon bucket size root ball through the hole in the tote lid. Maybe plastic welding a 5 gallon bucket rim to the lid of a tote might be the answer. Provided it seals and doesn't sag under the weight of this monster.
