When to add FloraNova and transplant?

[volksball]

Hi guys,

Please see the pics if my now 10 day old seedlings. The pics are from day 8. Not too much bigger.

I've been given some advice re transplanting. When the pot uses all its water in 24 hours, it's time to pot up! Thanks, Emilya. I'm already at 48hrs of water usage and they're still pretty small. Is that normal? I'm watering until there's run off.

Also, when should I start adding the FloraNova Veg nutrient? I've been told that I shouldn't at this stage because they're too young and the soil had enough at this stage, and also been told I should! Argh!

I'm growing in soil in solos.

Have a look at my journal, if you have a min. It has more pics and details of my grow.

Volksball's First Grow/White Widow Feminized/ Grow Journal -2018

Thanks,
Volksball

 

[vyserage]

i usually wait until the fan leafs are just outside the perimeter of the cup. You can transplant no problem but with them that small there isnt going to be much root strength to hold that soil together so it may collapse (as it did on me in my first grow during a too early transplant) and you'll have hanging roots. It didnt really hurt anything in my case so i think this is all preference. It also helps if the soil is still somewhat damp as it helps hold the soil together.

In my past soil grows i would transplant from party cup to 1 gallon as soon as the plants leafs reached perimeter, then 1 month from that i would transplant into the final pot size, 3G in my case.

 

[Emilya Green]

I don't believe in nutes at this stage of their life, but if you have healthy plants you can give them a nudge after they get some good roots by using nutes after the first transplant.
Speaking of transplants... you should have a good scientific reason to up-pot, it should not be a guess or a wim. In a solo cup the leaves over the edge thing works fairly well, until you get an extremely long leaved hybrid that someone rushes out of the cup because one leaf got 1/2 cm over the edge. The reason this works is you can pretty much imagine the shape of the roots below to be roughly the same shape of the plant above. This though, is a guess... and in the scientific world an invalid reason to up-pot.
Let's talk science.
Think of your soil in a container as a buffer that you have that determines your level of interactions with the container. Imagine no container, no soil, just bare roots... and to water them and keep them alive you would have to stand there 24/7 dripping a bit on those roots every minute or so. This is why containers were such a neat idea. We can plop a plant in one of those, put some soil around it, and suspend that water in a solution inside that container, and viola... we have created a buffer. No longer do we have to stand there dripping onto the roots... the container allows us to walk away for a while... and we shoot for 3-5 days being optimum so that we can go off and hunt and gather and do all of our human things.
But plants keep growing and expanding their needs and as the roots develop that buffer starts dwindling. The plant grows more roots between each wet/dry cycle, mostly during the dry part, seeking out all the water in that container. It gets better and better at this, and soon your buffer goes down to 48 hours... and then she approaches the 24 hour point. When your plant can use all the water in the container in less than 24 hours, this is no longer an effective buffer and it is time to up-pot. The roots have reached a point of diminishing returns. If you don't let them find more space, the rate at which the roots are expanding will be slowed down as the roots start running out of room in the container. It is time to double the size of the space, and then repeat this process... always looking closely at how long of a buffer the plants have given you in whatever size container they may be in.

 

[volksball]

Many thanks again, Emilya!

I like to read as much about this stuff as I can to make an informed decision. You help with that a great deal.

Again, another post that I'll likely return to a few times.

I'm thinking to go from solo to 2gal to 7 gal. I know the third jump is a big one, but I'm trying to avoid too many transplants and too much added equipment. You think that'll work?

I don't believe in nutes at this stage of their life, but if you have healthy plants you can give them a nudge after they get some good roots by using nutes after the first transplant.
Speaking of transplants... you should have a good scientific reason to up-pot, it should not be a guess or a wim. In a solo cup the leaves over the edge thing works fairly well, until you get an extremely long leaved hybrid that someone rushes out of the cup because one leaf got 1/2 cm over the edge. The reason this works is you can pretty much imagine the shape of the roots below to be roughly the same shape of the plant above. This though, is a guess... and in the scientific world an invalid reason to up-pot.
Let's talk science.
Think of your soil in a container as a buffer that you have that determines your level of interactions with the container. Imagine no container, no soil, just bare roots... and to water them and keep them alive you would have to stand there 24/7 dripping a bit on those roots every minute or so. This is why containers were such a neat idea. We can plop a plant in one of those, put some soil around it, and suspend that water in a solution inside that container, and viola... we have created a buffer. No longer do we have to stand there dripping onto the roots... the container allows us to walk away for a while... and we shoot for 3-5 days being optimum so that we can go off and hunt and gather and do all of our human things.
But plants keep growing and expanding their needs and as the roots develop that buffer starts dwindling. The plant grows more roots between each wet/dry cycle, mostly during the dry part, seeking out all the water in that container. It gets better and better at this, and soon your buffer goes down to 48 hours... and then she approaches the 24 hour point. When your plant can use all the water in the container in less than 24 hours, this is no longer an effective buffer and it is time to up-pot. The roots have reached a point of diminishing returns. If you don't let them find more space, the rate at which the roots are expanding will be slowed down as the roots start running out of room in the container. It is time to double the size of the space, and then repeat this process... always looking closely at how long of a buffer the plants have given you in whatever size container they may be in.

 

[volksball]

i usually wait until the fan leafs are just outside the perimeter of the cup. You can transplant no problem but with them that small there isnt going to be much root strength to hold that soil together so it may collapse (as it did on me in my first grow during a too early transplant) and you'll have hanging roots. It didnt really hurt anything in my case so i think this is all preference. It also helps if the soil is still somewhat damp as it helps hold the soil together.

In my past soil grows i would transplant from party cup to 1 gallon as soon as the plants leafs reached perimeter, then 1 month from that i would transplant into the final pot size, 3G in my case.

Thanks for taking the time! Informative and experienced.

 

[Emilya Green]

You think that'll work?

yep, now that you know how to build the roots at each stage