Root-bound question

[SeaDuds]

Hello all!
I'm a second year grower, learning a ton by reading posts and GLOGS here, and I'm uncertain about something and figured you could help.
 
From what I've read, once a pepper plant becomes root bound it will begin to flower/fruit. That makes sense to me in terms of "I can't grow any larger, so I'd better get to making more of myself". My question is, once a plant shifts to fruiting rather than vegetative, will transplanting to a larger container somewhat revert it's emphasis back to vegetative? Are these two 'modes', for lack of a better word, exclusive? I know that a flowering plant will continue to grow, but growth might be reduced due to the energy put into producing fruit.
 
The reason I ask is that I've started my peppers indoors much earlier this year. They're currently in solo cups and this Chicago weather is keeping them indoors for now. Do I need to transplant to mid-size pots as an intermediate before going to my 3 or 5 gallon pots? They're not showing signs of stress or anything yet, but if it doesn't warm up in the near future I'd like to avoid issues.
 
Sorry if this is a silly question, just trying to learn as much as humanly possible. 
 
gallery: http://imgur.com/a/O9f93
 
 

 

[Sizzle Lips]

You may have to transplant a few of your plants soon.....one thing I notice is that you use a 16 oz solo cup but most of them are barely half full of soil.....if you had filled them full you could easily get a couple more weeks out of them.
I have the same climate and grow in the same cups ...but use all of the real estate the cups offer.....I topped all my plants a few weeks ago....they are still growing great in the cups but I do need more time....I may move up a size or so  on a few of the plants.
 

 

 

 

[SeaDuds]

Yeah, I was running low on soil and was too impatient to wait until I could get more. I realized my mistake and will file that under "things not to do again". Thanks for the insight! I've got a handful of mid-size pots laying around so I might top the larger plants and then transplant the next week.

 

[mrgrowguy]

 
 My question is, once a plant shifts to fruiting rather than vegetative, will transplanting to a larger container somewhat revert it's emphasis back to vegetative? Are these two 'modes', for lack of a better word, exclusive? I know that a flowering plant will continue to grow, but growth might be reduced due to the energy put into producing fruit.
 
 

 
My experience with peppers is that once it starts flowering it will most likely, if not definitely, continue to produce flowers at each new node, no matter what you do. But, you can still get a lot of vegetative growth out of it even once it has started flowering. If you want to keep the number of branches down, you can prune, but it will likely keep producing flowers. You could also pluck the flowers as they pop to help keep the energy focused.
 
I do not think you can "re-veg" a pepper plant the same way you can "re-veg" a cannabis plant, for example.
 
 
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[SeaDuds]

Thanks for the info mrgrowguy!

 

[Hybrid Mode 01]

     A lot of my plants start flowering before plant out. I keep picking the flowers off indoors, then after I plant I keep picking them off for a week or two. After that time, they seem to begin to realize they have much more soil to work with and shift back to vegetative growth and really take off. Once they get over their transplant stress and start putting on more vegetative growth, they take their time before resuming flowering. By the time they start flushing flowers again, they are much bigger and are growing much faster and robustly than plants that I don't de-flower. Overall, the plants that I try to convince to revert to primarily vegetative growth greatly outproduce the plants that I leave alone.

 

[SeaDuds]

 Overall, the plants that I try to convince to revert to primarily vegetative growth greatly outproduce the plants that I leave alone.

 
Boom, exactly what I was looking for. Thanks so much!

 

[Hybrid Mode 01]

 
Boom, exactly what I was looking for. Thanks so much!

 
 
 
     One think to keep in mind is that no one here gave a wrong answer or the one "true" answer. There are many other variables that could lead one method to be better for a plant than another.
     One thing I thought of is that maybe my spring/early summer weather is better for fast growth than weather in mid to late summer. Optimizing a plant for fast growth during that two month window so I end up with a big plant. Then when the hot temps of summer hit, vegetative growth slows down and the plant starts really chugging out pods. 
     Plants being grown near the ocean might not have to put up with trying to grow during spells of dry blistering heat. They might be able to take advantage of more favorable conditions all season and just keep getting bigger. I dunno. Just throwing that out there.

 

[SeaDuds]

 One think to keep in mind is that no one here gave a wrong answer or the one "true" answer. There are many other variables that could lead one method to be better for a plant than another.
     One thing I thought of is that maybe my spring/early summer weather is better for fast growth than weather in mid to late summer. Optimizing a plant for fast growth during that two month window so I end up with a big plant. Then when the hot temps of summer hit, vegetative growth slows down and the plant starts really chugging out pods. 
     Plants being grown near the ocean might not have to put up with trying to grow during spells of dry blistering heat. They might be able to take advantage of more favorable conditions all season and just keep getting bigger. I dunno. Just throwing that out there.

 
Absolutely! I found that each person who responded gave me a different facet of the same general answer, which is why I love this forum so much. I've learned that I should take full advantage of the size of a starting container (I honestly didn't think about how far away warm weather was... wishful thinking), peppers don't fully switch back to a vegetative state (which I had a feeling was true), and restricting flowering/fruiting can encourage the plant to further develop vegetation.
 
Your point about location is interesting as well, I hadn't considered that.

 

[alkhall]

I transplant my seedlings, which are started in coir plugs, into 3 inch pots, and that is where they stay until plant-out; usually about two-and-a-half months. They are completely root-bound by that time.
 
Last year, I had bell peppers and Cayennes making pods, which it seemed I was continuously clipping off, for about two months. I would estimate I clipped off a hundred or more baby peppers over a dozen or so plants.
 
However, I noticed that, once planted in the ground, they stopped making pods and started vegetative growth again. They did not resume making pods for about another six to eight weeks.
 
My chinense plants did not flower before plant-out, so I cannot speak to that.
 
That has been my experience.

 

[Geonerd]

Yea, just let the plant do what it will.
Unroll any looped or tangled roots when you up-pot them.  (If the roots are really snarled, it's better to cut them in one or two locations that to leave them running in circles.)
A mildly aggressive nitrogen fertilizer will probably 'encourage' more growth too.

 

[philosophiser]

No matter what state they're in when you transplant them, they are going to grow like crazy once they get outside and you're going to wonder why you worried so much
 
It's all about timing, same thing happened to me this year and I got a bunch flowering in cups and even setting fruit before I transplant them this weekend. Next year I'll start things a couple of weeks later, just live and learn. It's inevitable though, once they get real, full sun, they have no choice but to grow! You're honestly never going to know for sure if you could have gotten more peppers by potting them up sooner, and you'll probably get enough as it is, so don't stress.

 

[Kikaida]

I got two doing this right now...One I'm going to let go, the other I'm going to snip. Was hoping they would drop the flowers but little pepper nublettes are already showing on one. The other one I re-topped and its already showing buds deep in the new growth so that one will be snipped.

 

[juanitos]

yes
 
kinda, flowering stage still grows veg just at a slower rate so it's not like an on off switch. but the overall goal of the plant does seem to change, more evident in smaller plants as they have more room to grow. Eventually they will hit a wall where they will grow slowly and flower no matter the size of container so wouldn't be as affected by transplant. But not many people are transplanting fully grown plants lol.
 
no you don't need intermediate transplant. plants can get quite large in solo cups.. something like 1.5'. your plants don't look to be there yet and you shouldn't worry about it.

 

[SeaDuds]

yes
 
kinda, flowering stage still grows veg just at a slower rate so it's not like an on off switch. but the overall goal of the plant does seem to change, more evident in smaller plants as they have more room to grow. Eventually they will hit a wall where they will grow slowly and flower no matter the size of container so wouldn't be as affected by transplant. But not many people are transplanting fully grown plants lol.
 
no you don't need intermediate transplant. plants can get quite large in solo cups.. something like 1.5'. your plants don't look to be there yet and you shouldn't worry about it.

 
I was actually just looking at your GLOG and saw the size of some of your plants that were still in plugs. Gave me some peace of mind.
Awesome GLOG btw, gives me all sorts of ideas for the years ahead!