Transplant to bigger pot - leave in small pot?

[alienpuppy]

Growing/veg in those small black cheap nursery pots that are 13cm wide x 14cm tall ... after 4 weeks when the plants are ~1ft tall the holes in the pot are pretty much blocked from the roots, the roots look like they're almost choking each other the bigger they get.

 

Anyway when it comes to moving them into the larger pots in the flower room, is it better to just stick the plant - pot and all - into the clay pebbles (no transplant as such), or actually remove it from the small pot first and properly transplant it? (I would normally just cut the pot off it, so there's not much in the way of root shock, although the pot can't be reused)

  

A friend says he just sticks them in as-is with the pot ... ok there's pretty much zero root-based transplant shock that way, BUT then I'm worried about 1) the roots blocking the pots draining ability, 2) the roots choking/cutting themselves from the holes, 3) less yield, 4) less strength/ability to hold higher yields. He also says "in hydroponics we want to keep the root system small so it can focus on flowers, and it doesn't need a big root system because we feed from the top"?

 

Thanks

 

[merl1n]

Pics tell a thousand words.

[alienpuppy]

I don't have a camera sorry (don't even have a mobile), but I don't think a photo would help much ... you know those standard black pots? eg.

http://rseapt.org/i/2016/12/plastic_pot_plant_containers_29_trendy_interior_or___inch_round_black_nursery.jpg

So just imagine one of those with a 4-week vegged plant 1ft tall and with roots coming out of the bottom

[Gazza2001au]

I use these pots,depends if u are in soil or coco or possibly already in a recirculating hydro system like expanded clay balls, there are a lot of variations from grower to grower some may have a plant 1 foot tall chock a block full of foliage where as another person could have 3-4 sets of leaves, whatsabove the medium gives a indication of whats going on below the medium, excessive roots at the drainage could just mean your over watering or it could mean your pots are chockablock full and root bound, if over watered and watered frequently the roots will travel to the bottom of the pot following the water and clog as u suggest

[alienpuppy]

yep its a recirculating expanded clay setup

[Gazza2001au]

I would say your root bound man your probably doing more stunting leaving them in those pots than transplanting but seriously transplanting is not that big a deal you should see new growth after a few days

[Sir PsychoHashy]

You should be starting them off in rockwool and putting them straight into the final setup once they start pushing roots out of the cube, or just sprouting them in clayballs in the final setup.  In recirc hydro you don't need to start in small pots as there's no issue with bogging them down unless your system is all wrong.  I'm hoping you're not starting in soil or coco to transplant into clayballs, and if you are I'd advise you to take them out of the pots and rinse off as much medium as possible before transplanting into your clayballs, you don't want that shit getting in your pump.

 

In certain circumstances I"ll start them off in the nursery tent in net pots before transplanting into the final system in the big tent, but thats in net pots with clayballs, not normal pot plant pots like those.  You could use those pots with clayballs, but if you do you will definitely want to take them out when transplanting into the final system, and you'll want to transplant before they get rootbound.  Better off starting them in the final system when possible, or at least ASAP, as they grow faster with less root restriction.

 

[alienpuppy]

They're in clay pebbles in the small pots too, but they're the only pots that fit in my friends veg chamber (he has cancer, i'm helping him set up to grow CBD strains), he has holes cut out for them in a board.  So yes it's a clay pebbles small pot -> clay pebbles big pot transplant.  I'd prefer to just grow them in the big pot and not have to worry about any transplants, but i have to work in the constraints he's given me

[Sir PsychoHashy]

That makes more sense.  Take them out for the transplant, even if they slow down from shock for a couple of days they'll make up for it with root freedom after that.  Just give them a few days veg to recover before flipping the lights.

 

Maybe in future if he keeps using those pots it might be worth cutting slots down the sides of them to sorta turn em into dodgy net pots?