LED Grow Light Forum

Hi,

Kind of a stupid question here, but after reading all about the risks of transplanting seedlings to larger pots, I am wondering why I shouldn't just plant my germinated seeds into a large, 5 gallon pot right away and let them grow to completion? They are feminized, so not too concerned about potential males taking up space, and don't want to risk stressing them into becoming hermies...

Is it because the plant will spend too much time developing a root system and not growing above ground? If thinking about outdoor grows, and plants in nature, they seem to do ok with "limitless" room to develop roots?

I've just started germinating, so I have a couple of days to decide....Any recommendations?

Thanks!!
CB

Some people do just that but roots will fill out faster in smaller pots than larger pots and if transplanted correctly there shouldn't be that much stress during the veg cycle. You do want to transplant into final pots before flowering though.

While plants do grow in the ground, from seed, outdoors, they also have a 9 month cycle outdoors. Indoor growing allows us to manipulate the cycles and how fast they grow. Transplanting is one of those manipulations. It also depends on how long/tall you plan to veg. You don't need giant pots if you're growing tiny plants. More is not always better.


Hope that helps...

Thanks SME...totally makes sense. Since I am legally limited to growing just six plants, and am only running with four "genetically smaller" Indica plants this time for my CGL grow journal, I didn't know if it would matter too much...

The idea of managing what the plants are doing via the pot size hadn't occurred to me. I think I will plant them into a smaller pot, watch for root growth, and be sure to transplant at least 1 week before flowering.

I thinking somewhere around 4 weeks or so for veg...make sense? They all are genetically designed for 56-70 days of flowering, so don't want them to get too big.

Thanks again,
CB

I prefer to use height rather than age, especially with new strains, but I'm also nearly convinced that plants under LED should only be vegged to about 12-ish inches tall (max) before flipping to 12/12 until LED lights get more penetration power. Maybe 4 weeks is 12 inches with your strain...

You can do them however you want, of course, but you can only cover so much area with that light and it will only penetrate so deep so keeping them smaller is better than letting them get too big for your space/light.


YMMV...