Ok, so I went ahead and ordered some plants from CCN ( 7 Pot, Bhut Yellow, Bhut Chocolate, Red Savina, Naga Morich, Trinidad Scorpion) I split the order with a co-worker of mine who I've spread the pepper growing disease to so it was only like 25$ for each of us. I figure if I fail miserably at least it was only 25$. I've got some run-of-the-mill peppers picked up from lowe's that are doing great ATM. Just Jalapeno's, Cayenne's, Habs, and a couple others, and I've just used a mixture of MG moisture control and MG potting mix on them. I know the general opinion of MG products but its the best I can do here locally without paying an arm and a leg for shipping a 3.8CF bale of Promix BX. Anyways, rambling now, my question is this: I know the plants from CCN come in smaller square pots, would it be ok to move them directly into 1 gallon nursery contatiners? I've heard differing opinions on moving them to smaller 6" containers then to 1 gallon then to 5 gallons. That just seems like a ton of moving around. I will put them in 5 gallons after they get some growth on them (just so happens this co-worker had a chicken farm so has a ga zillion 5 gallon buckets laying around...score). I don't want to put the plants in the ground because me and the wife are looking at new houses so I dont want to go through that trouble of ground planting them, then having to dig them right back up. Anyways, back to the original question. Is 1 gallon nursery containers too big to move them straight into? Thanks for all the help.
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Pot size question
- Thread starter coheed196
- Start date
I think one gallon would promote good roots and still be small enough tah move easily...
The plants I bought from Cross Country arrived on a Thursday and spent the night inside. The next 2 or 3 days they were outside with the rest of my plants getting wind whipped in their original containers. On day 3 or 4 I planted them into 3 gallon pots and they have done well. I'm Wishing I'd stuck them straight into the 7 gallon pots intead of the 3 gallon since that will be their final destination. I suppose I'll give them that final move in another few weeks but they are vigorous so I'm not expecting that final transplant to be too traumatic.
Some varieties have indeterminate growth and will benefit from larger pots. If you are concerned about moving them around, get yourself a handtruck and strap the pots to it for moving them around. I would suggest not moving them from container to container very often as it may cause stress and /or damage to the plant during transit. Just a suggestion...
Well Janie from CCN (which is who responded to my email) suggested to move them from the square pots they come in, into 6" containers, then after a couple weeks into 1 gallon, then in a couple weeks into 5 gallons. It sounded like alot of moving around to me, but I figured she knew what she was talking about. I dunno I might just go straight into 3 gallons from the square pots that they come in. Also I'll be using the Pro-Mix Container mix. Has anybody used this and had good results?
I left mine in containers for several days..then they went into 1 gallon.
and by the way..many of my bigger plants grew up in MG Moisture control....
and by the way..many of my bigger plants grew up in MG Moisture control....
My plants will ship monday to be here thursday or friday, I reckon I'll leave them in the square containers over the weekend maybe putting them outside for a couple hours in the early morning considering our highs in the afternoon are already topping 90F. Then I'll move them into the 1 gallons since I have already bought them. Eventually I will have to move them into 5 gallons though but oh well. My regular Lowe's peppers are in MG moisture control and are doing very well too, but I found a local nursery after much google-ing that sells 20QT bags of the pro-mix ultimate container mix for 7$ so I figure I'll give it a whirl anyways. I've heard nothing but good about Pro-mix, but its usually pro-mix BX I hear so much about.
When you have a small root ball in a large pot, there is a ton of space in the bottom that the roots aren't drawing water from. Water can sit in the bottom for too long and increase the chance of root rot or fungal problems. Even with good drainage the bottom can stay pretty damp when there are no roots close by to suck up water, especially when it rains a lot in spring. Potting up several times makes for a more compact root ball too. At least that's my opinion on it, I don't like to put a tiny root ball into a large pot for those reasons. I usually pot up at least once in between the 3.25" pots and the 5 or 7 gallon, I pot them up to either 5.5" square pots or round 1 gallon pots first.
Ok, so I am planning on potting the plants from CCN up to 1 gallon nursery containers from the 3.5" pots they come in. After a couple weeks I will go straight into 5 gallons. Will normal 5 gallon buckets from Lowe's work or do they need to be actual "nursery containers"? I know I'll have to drill or otherwise make quite a few drainage holes in the bottom, but that's not a problem. Reason I ask is because Lowe's has 5 Gallon buckets for 2.60 a piece, which is more expensive per pot than online but after shipping costs it's actually cheaper for me to just buy them from Lowe's (especially since Lowe's gives a 10% discount...woot) and because I only need about 10 5 gallon buckets.
Nursery pots can be easy to come by if you know where to look, but it's just as simple to go to Walmart (or any grocery store) and ask their bakery if they have empty frosting buckets. They're usually free, and with a little diligence you can get as many as you need. They usually come in a range of sizes between 3.5 and 5 gallons.
You might have to wash a little frosting out of them, but free is free, right?
Well I called all the nurseries here locally and walmart, target, and several restaurants and was told by the stores and restaurants that they arent allowed to give away anything. I said I would pay for them but still got a no. Even from the fast food places around town.