Why repot

BillNBen

420 Member
Hello sorry if this has been asked before but when people have clones why do they seem to use small pots (5litre) then make there way to larger pots (30litre) ??
I have always just planted it large pots and used to the end . What are the benefits or starting small and repotting and how to tell when they need to upgrade size ?? Thanks
 
Mainly it can be difficult to manage the watering. Overwatering is a big problem for new and even not so new growers, and a small plant in a big pot can be a dangerous beast that way.

Depending on what your grow medium is like, smaller pots with frequent up-potting can be much better for root growth. With a lot of soil mediums the real action is around the outsides where the medium touches the pot, and there is a lot of O2 exchange. I’ve got a super knowledgeable botanist friend and he’s always telling me ‘small pots are where it’s at’. On the other hand he’s growing mostly smallish ornamentals whereas dope growers often want maximum growth and size as fast as possible.

Myself I’m not around every day to fuss over them and I don’t feel like watering more than once every four or five days so I mostly base pot size on the watering schedule. Once they need watering every three days it’s definitely time for me to up-pot.

As a very rough rule of thumb the plant can easily get twice the height and size of the pot before worrying about a transplant. When they’re four times the size they’re probably root bound for sure. To me it seems they actually often grow best when they’re pushing the limits of the pot size.
 
I am currently using 40 litre pots
My medium is coco
They are using 4-6 litre a day
Size is just shy of 5ft

I potted my clones straight into the 40 litre lot and have always done this method but was wondering if I was to use a smaller pot to begin and then repot with it speed up my veg period maybe ?
I was just abit worried about leaving in small pot for to long and getting root bound
 
Ok coco is different. You want to be watering that every day- usually multiple times except in early veg. It’s only possible to over water coco in the very early stages.
It’s also much less likely to get rootbound. The whole mass has much better access to oxygen than soil and most other types of soilless.
Here’s a plant I grew in 16oz of coco. It had zero problems being in that cup throughout the grow.

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I’m all about trying new things and seeing what works best so I may give it a try next time round .

@Weaselcracker i have always used quite large pots since my first ever rodeo just they way I was taught I guess but I average anywhere from 10-18oz per plant yield do you think my yield would be the same if I was to down side to maybe 25 litre pots
 
She’s looking very nice @Hdinkleman .
I forgot to mention I also always use fabric pots as I find it help the roots when early stage of veg .

I guess i will only truly know by experimenting myself with reporting and smaller pots
 
Repotting encourages rapid growth. The large the root mass the stronger the infrastructure to support big buds. Having said that huge plants can be grown in small pots if u use coco. As long as it is fed multiple times a day I pulled 67oz out of a 7 litre pot with a 140w led - I probably would have got more with a bigger pot but with coco it doesn’t make that difference. The largest pot I have used with coco is 25 litres - bigger than that seems to make no difference. If you grow in dirt, then a bigger pot may mean bigger yields.
 
@SLHLover that’s sort of the answer I was looking for I was hoping re potting will speed up the veg process a little .
How do you know when you have out grown the small pot and need to increase the size ??

67 oz ?? How is that even possible do you have any pictures of that ?
 
@SLHLover that’s sort of the answer I was looking for I was hoping re potting will speed up the veg process a little .
How do you know when you have out grown the small pot and need to increase the size ??

When my fan leaves start to stretch way over the rim of the pot, it's generally time to repot. A plant 3-4 times the pot is probably going to be root-bound - not a problem if you use air pot as the roots are air-pruned but def' a problem in dirt with closed pots. In coco: jiffy pellet, 1.5 litre then into it's final 14 or 20 litre airpot. In dirt I would go from seedling in jiffy pellet to 1-2 Litre pot (or put clone directly into the 1-2 litre pot), then once a good tap root has formed and roots reach the sides and bottom of the pot (generally by the time the leaves are growing way beyong the rim of the pot approx 2 weeks) I would pot up to say 7 litres or 12-14 litres (depends if u want to repot twice in veg). A week or so before flower a final repot into the final container (25-30 litres?). Use a root stimulator for the first week or two of flower as you want to fill thst pott with as much root mass as poss in preparation for flowering)

@SLHLover
67 oz ?? How is that even possible do you have any pictures of that ?
opps..typo..I pulled 6 oz (VERY respectable for the light and pot size)...the point being you can have a small root ball in coco and still produce a lot as it can be fed multiple times a day...with dirt you will want to go bigger.
 
Hey BillnBen,
I used to grow in 35L to 50L coco pots, yeah mate, just go 3 pot ups.
After clone cup...
4.5L- 1 gallon
10L- 2 gallon
fill that right up with roots, then ..
40L... Done.
And that lets roots keep up with growth of plant...fast.
Fill the pots roots, dont worry about root binding too much, as you pot up they just grow out into new coco.

They get real big in 40L... Be careful... Lol
 
I’m all about trying new things and seeing what works best so I may give it a try next time round .

@Weaselcracker i have always used quite large pots since my first ever rodeo just they way I was taught I guess but I average anywhere from 10-18oz per plant yield do you think my yield would be the same if I was to down side to maybe 25 litre pots

Hey Bill, (or is it Ben). I can’t really claim the expertise to say for sure if your yield would be the same. Seems like what you’re doing is working for you. But yes for one pound-ish plants most people would be using about half of what you are. Or maybe what that means is you can grow your plants twice as big in what you’re using now :)
 
Thanks for your helps guys really appreciate it best thing I did was join this forum and be able to have a chat with people who share the Same interest .

@Lowrider72 would you say from
Experience then that it is better to repot and work you way up ? And does it speed up the veg process

@Weaselcracker i can be bill or Ben . Ye what I’m doing it working good and I can’t really Get them any bigger with the space they are in so I guess I don’t really need 40-50 litre pots I can just use half of that and still gain the same yield as previous
 
Ok coco is different. You want to be watering that every day- usually multiple times except in early veg. It’s only possible to over water coco in the very early stages.
It’s also much less likely to get rootbound. The whole mass has much better access to oxygen than soil and most other types of soilless.
Here’s a plant I grew in 16oz of coco. It had zero problems being in that cup throughout the grow.

image10739.jpeg




image10738.jpeg
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Thats insane!!! i saw on instagram someone called Stunted_Art or something like that, it is a guy who grows killer plants in solo cups :rofl:
 
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