TIFU: DWC Transplanting

[MehGreenThumb]

On the May 30th (~7 days after starting from seed) I put 3 cannabis plants into 3" netcups and moved them into a DWC tub. I may have started them in DWC a tad early, but they were starting to take off and I could see the tap root starting to emerge from the rockwool. I was worried about air pruning/killing them; so got them going. I think I put in a small amount of Bioroot, but mostly just PH balanced water.

The tub has 8 spots for plants, with green peppers (yeah, vegetables) growing in 5 and my babies in the other 3. Today, the plants are getting a bit big for their current home. They're looking great. The 5th nodes are getting started, and they have many nice long roots.

I'd like each to have their own bucket. Unfortunately, I'm running behind. I've cleaned the buckets and the hydroton; but don't have the airstones and air pumps ready just yet. Better get a move on!

At this point, I'm not sure how to "transplant" them. There are a lot of roots, and the roots are a bit tangled. I'm a bit nervous to pull them out of the net cups. I think I can do it, if I'm very careful. BUT, even if I get them out without damaging them; I don't think the roots will go through the holes/slots in whatever new net cup I put them in.

I have a 10" wide lip bucket basket. It has some good sized holes, but it's still be a struggle getting roots threaded through them. I'll use 2 of those. One for the 20 gallon drum, and the other for a 7 gallon bucket. The 3rd plant will get a 6" net cup in a 5 gallon kitty litter tub.

Have others found themselves in this predicament? What did you do?

Should I just put the whole 3" net cup, plant and all, into the bigger net cup and fill hydroton around it? Should I just let the roots coil at the bottom of the new "net cup" and let them sort things out?

My fear of leaving the plant in the 3" net cup is that that roots will grow big enough to be cut by the plastic. I've seen how thick they can get on previous grows. If I can't gently remove the plants, I'm pretty sure I'll have to sacrifice those net cups and cut the plant out.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Stormblessed]

I think I would just put the whole net cup in the bigger basket, how far r the roots hanging out?I think I get ur description but pics would b helpful, I’m doing dwc also and have wondered the same thing so I’m interested in the answers for far more experienced people than me

 

[The Phantom]

I had a sort of similar issue with my clones in my cloner, I slacked off a bit getting my rdwc up and going. When it was finally ready the clones were over a foot tall and their roots became tangled together. What I did was make sure the roots were submerged in the water so they can just kind of float around and I was able to get them separated using my fingers with only breaking a few roots.

If you really want to get the pot off, I would do something similar if I were you, submerge the roots and net pot in the water and slowly try to work the pot off. I also like your idea of just placing the smaller net pot into your larger one.

 

[Stormblessed]

Only issue I can see is if the roots were to long how would u weave the roots through the new medium in the bigger basket to reach the reservoir

 

[The Phantom]

Now that was the exact issue I had once I untangle my clones, what to do with the 16” roots! I tried to get them to go throw my 6” net pot without any luck so I just coiled them around the bottom of the basket and gently poured in the hydroton. It took a few days for them to start coming up but they made it out. I did have to dump water 2 to 3 times a day to keep them from drying out (I don’t use air stones so I don’t have water splashing up from below to keep the hydroton wet).
Here they are coming out after a few days.

And after a week.

 

[Stormblessed]

Holy shit, they came out with a vengeance to lol

 

[The Phantom]

Damn straight! Haha

 

[MehGreenThumb]

Only issue I can see is if the roots were to long how would u weave the roots through the new medium in the bigger basket to reach the reservoir

Exactly. I'll probably have to coil them.

Thanks Stormblessed & Phantom. Taking another look, I am concerned the net cup is too small. Once that main root really gets going, it can get pretty thick. I'll try to coerce the plant out of the net cup floating in some water; but I'm prepared to just cut up the net cup.
For the new home, I'll probably just have to coil the roots. The plants will figure it out.

Since folks are curious, I attached 4 pics. I also have 1000 pics of my cat, if anyone wants to see those. Haha. Seriously, though, my buddies all complain I send them too many plant updates, so it's pretty great someone actually wants a plant pic!! The 1st 4 pics are the plant that's doing the best. You can see the roots are pretty long. The other plant (4099) has even longer roots and they're pretty clumped together. So... we'll see.

 

[Stormblessed]

U could try taking the clay pebbles out little at a time and that might free it up, but then I don’t kno how u would get that into new medium

 

[MehGreenThumb]

Yeah. The pebbles will just pour out. The plant shouldn't have tangled any of them yet. It's more about getting the fragile threads to untangle without slicing them on sharp plastic. I'm going to be quick to cut the plastic. I don't want to set them back too much.

@phantom, those roots are gangbusters. I hope I'll have a similar result. I'd prefer to have a solid base like that than the usual - just a few big thick strands that seem to be holding up a huge root ball. You can see there are already about 7 - 10 "main" roots in my plant. People always worry about what's above the water, but I wonder if a little accidental root management might turn out to be a good thing. I'm going to curl them (no choice anyway) and see what happens.

Every grow is interesting.

 

[Stormblessed]

Good luck, let us kno how it turns out

 

[The Phantom]

Good luck and just take your time being patient taking off the net pot. You’re roots have a nice “fish bone” look to them so it won’t take them long to start looking like my clones did and then they will start looking like my roots now.

Here they were in the cloner about a week before I moved them to the main setup. You can see them starting to tangle in the water. Next time I’ll make sure to get them transplanted to the net pots after only a few inches of root growth and not feet!

Good luck and like the others said, “keep us updated.”

 

[Enjoil]

Just let em grow through the plastic, if you want, I did and no problems.

 

[Stormblessed]

Holy root mass

 

[The Phantom]

Root mass look at the gnarly stem! This looks like an old oak tree. Haha

How long did you have that lady vegging for Enjoil?

 

[Stormblessed]

It sure does lol

 

[Enjoil]

It was one of these clones on January 22, taken from a plant that was 2-3weeks in flower. Maybe 4, I was procrastinating, so they had to re-veg. The clones branched like crazy! Seemed like every pistol on the buds grew into branches! Sweet mistakes!

 

[Enjoil]

If you look close on that pick you can still see some of the calixes hangin on

 

[The Phantom]

Monster cropped clones are some wicked little things aren’t they?

 

[Enjoil]

For sure! Veg time probably about two months cuz they took a month to root and re-veg. Once they get plugged into a bucket they take off like crazy!