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What are the draw backs or benefits of "potting up" early?

chicken_phat

chicken_phat

I recently potted up all my plants on the same day (about a week and a half ago) even though they ranged from 1.5 feet tall to as little as 5 inches tall. The smaller plants were in red solo cups and they were transferred into 10 gallon containers (2 plants per container). My bigger plants were already in one gallon containers before potting up to those 10 gal containers. They haven't shown signs of growth after transferring (until yesterday), which I'm guessing can be attributed to the roots wanting to grow out into their new space before growing vegetation.

Basically, what are the draw backs or benefits of "potting up" early?
 
Drawbacks of potting up to early is stunted growth, because the plant focuses on root growth because of all the new room it has to grow roots. The plant devotes most of it energy into root development, rather than plant growth. Potting up to early is better than potting up to late!
 
I wouldn't call that a drawback. You can't grow a strong plant without big roots and the plant's gonna put energy into growing those roots no matter when you do it.
 
Just ask yourself. What happens when you sow directly in your garden or when they grow in the wild. You never restrict the roots and they grow free and normal.

Pot size depends on how much space you have and if you feel you need to hold the plant on a certain state to avoid potting up if you don't have the space.

You don't want 50 #5 pots around your house. Just my thought.

, Vegas
 
I forgot to mention that what I said mainly applies to seedlings. And I have a perfect example of this as last yr. I pottedvup a seedling to early and it stunted its growth, All the other seedling that were smaller passed it up in growth and left it in the dust
 
Mine only go through 2 pottings/plantings.
They start in hydro (aerogarden), then into 3.5" squares.
They stay there till root bound and living off hydro ferts and plain water. (alternating daily at the end)
When the weather is conducive, they go into the ground, and some projects go into planters for houseplants. (some small winter pods for giggles)
This will be my first FULL season grow (several partials and indoor pepper projects previously) so I havent decided if I will overwinter any of the current lot, or do seed, or clones or some mixture of all the above.
I have 4 plants that were exclusively hydro monsters from last year that I potted up in dirt this season.
It appears there is a 3 week lag between potting up and taking off, for me anyway, and am anticipating about the same for the transplants to dirt.
Saying I put 50 in the ground on Monday, and won't worry much about their growth for a couple more weeks.
They all survived, and that's good enough for the moment.
 
megahot said:
I forgot to mention that what I said mainly applies to seedlings. And I have a perfect example of this as last yr. I pottedvup a seedling to early and it stunted its growth, All the other seedling that were smaller passed it up in growth and left it in the dust
Click to expand...

I think other vairiables where at had there like soil PH, or trasplant shock due to root damage, etc.




look at Guru's 2012 Brain Strain.... I dont think Potting up should be a "drawback" unless you have space issues.


He started with this and... yeah
7119562219_bfe1e54d6c_z.jpg


Ends with this...
7913784902_c910ff27e1_c.jpg


So does that put this question to bed?...
 
Flipping heck! That is one beast of a plant! How much steroids did he have to inject into that thing to make it end up like that?

It seems the size of those plants seems pretty related to the size of the pots. I'm starting to think my 3 (US) gallon pots are not going to be big enough then for decent yields?
 
Outside in the sun, I can't think of a reason not to put them in the biggest pot you can afford soil for. Under lights in the winter where teh plants grow slower, it is easy to get root rot if you have the plants in a pot too big for the roots and it gets too wet...
 
Drawbacks can be if not careful that because of the varying water usage of the plants based on root/plant size people can tend to over water the soil which keeps the root zone too wet and less oxygenated creating root zone issues . Main thing to be wary of.
 
one draw back if you are Canadian is the weather might kill ur plants, as in the temp dropping below 0 two weeks after you pot up. tonights temp might dip below 0 for us, so my plants might die, so that one draw back right there.
 
ZenPepper said:
one draw back if you are Canadian is the weather might kill ur plants, as in the temp dropping below 0 two weeks after you pot up. tonights temp might dip below 0 for us, so my plants might die, so that one draw back right there.
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I hear ya. I was thinking about doing my final potting up last week and I'm glad I didn't. 24 degrees on Thursday, freezing temperatures for the next 2 days :(
 
ZenPepper said:
one draw back if you are Canadian is the weather might kill ur plants, as in the temp dropping below 0 two weeks after you pot up. tonights temp might dip below 0 for us, so my plants might die, so that one draw back right there.
Click to expand...
amps said:
I hear ya. I was thinking about doing my final potting up last week and I'm glad I didn't. 24 degrees on Thursday, freezing temperatures for the next 2 days :(
Click to expand...

Yea I had to bring my plants inside for the past 3 days, and I'm planning on keeping them inside for another 2 or 3 days. I had to lug around five 10-gallon plant containers, and those things are pretty heavy with soil. Damn Canadian weather!
 
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