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Rootbounding plants...on purpose

Suffice it to say, while sitting in my house during January, stuck due to all the snow I decided I couldnt wait to plant seeds for two more months, so I planted my peppers and tomatoes a couple months early. Now, for lack of money, space and a few other things I'm kind of stuck in a rut with what to do with my quite large for cup size plants. They're in 16 ounce cups, and the tomatoes are really being hit hard with root bound problems. I know that most likely they cannot wait another good month to be transplanted outside and I'm on here asking for any suggestions. Do you think just moving up to like a 22 ounce cup would make any difference what so ever? Or if it would even be worth it? The tomatoes are looking quite sickly and I hate seeing them being stuck like this. I planted 6 plants in pots outside, so I can move them in when it gets cold at night, but I'm going to have to wait for atleast a month for these ones stuck in my room. I honestly dont think the tomatoes will be able to make it that long without getting 'sick' to say the least. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also, even with these small cups the plants are almost out of room. They keep getting entangled with each other, sometimes falling. As you can see from the pics many leaves have fallen and its getting to become quite the pain in thee ol ass'. I can move probably 5 or 6 plants up to bigger pots say like 1 gallon, but then the other 8 wouldnt get able to get under my lights so it would be a big sacrifice. Like a jungle in here.
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I couldnt help myself.. now its coming back to bite me in the arse!
 
Put them all in gallon pots, leave some under the light and rotate the rest outdoors into a sheltered area and bring them in at night. You might also move some to a southern window if available.
 
If you have a cooler location in the house you can move them there. I started some of mine in Jan. just like you did and when they started getting too big for the cups I moved them down into the basement. They almost totally quit growing until I moved them outside to harden them. You can also cut back on the watering frequency and plant food to slow their growth.


Alan
 
Yeah both suggestions are great, I guess I can move them into bigger 1 gallon pots its just a lot more work then I'd honestly like, being a full time student and working full time its easier said then done, but I know it'll be worth it this summer!
 
You still have time to re-start tomatoes if necessary, they grow very quickly once its warm, so I'd spend most of my attention on the pepper plants and pot them up
 
Thanks for all the helpful tips, I never really even thought about cloning any of the tomatoes. Yet, I've never successfully done this, and replanting seemed like too much work so I just decided to head to my local depot' and scoop up some new pots and soil. Turns out they were extremely root bound, unbelievably. Pics below, as well as just updated pics on my plants! Sorry for so many
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Roots coming directly out of the hole in the bottom of the cup, incredible!
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Old...
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New...
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