Potting up advice needed

Jase4224 · Oct 22, 2015

So my peppers are nearly a couple months old and have been in 3inch pots for around a month. They are growing well and most onto their 6-8th set of leaves and around 10-15cm in hight. So I'm thinking it's nearly time to re pot them but I'm not sure if I should go to an 8inch pot first or directly to their permanent pots (some going into 15inch and others get a 20inch).

What are the pros and cons of using gradually larger pots as opposed to going straight into the larger size?

This is my first proper grow and I'm not sure what is best.

Cheers, Jason

dragonsfire · Oct 22, 2015

I would go gradual, 8" pots are manageable, bigger pots probably dont need to water as much.

hogleg · Oct 22, 2015

Are you trying to keep these indoors til plant out in spring? In that case, I would only put in their final large pots at plant out.

BigB · Oct 22, 2015

My case is different than yours because i'm in south florida, but i went from 1 gallon pots to 15 gallon pots and my plants basically turned into trees since april. This was a suggestion from wickedmike who knows quite a bit about growing peppers, and it was a good move. With that being said, it also really depends on how big you want your plants and your plant's genetics. I have like 40 peppers that i started at the same time and my tallest one is 3.5ft in a 1 gallon nursery pot while others are a foot, some more some less.

Jase4224 · Oct 22, 2015

Sorry should have mentioned my plants are already outside. It would be easier to just put them into their large pots but if there's any real advantage in going into gradually larger pots than I will.

BigB · Oct 23, 2015

there isn't. stick em in their final destination

mrgrowguy · Oct 23, 2015

I believe there is, when you up-pot into a middle sized pot you will help encourage your roots to use as much of the soil space as possible.If you ever notice a rootbound plant in a small pot seems like there are roots everywhere, but if you cut the root ball open you would see a lot of wasted space in the middle. Up potting multiple times will help to avoid the roots from being primarily around the edges.

However, up potting multiple times can be a lot of work, and your lifestyle may not make that easy. For me, I would like to with my pepper plants, but with my many 'other' plants that I have going and all of the cloning that I have to do, up potting would be a huge time sink. So you will have to weigh the benefits to see if it is worth it to you. Thus, I pick and chose which plants I dedicate more time to. My medicinal plants get the priority for me.

Do you need to mid-size up-pot? No, definitely not. You will end up with trees either way, as long as you give them all the nutes and everything they want. Plus some patience.

Pro - better use of soil by the roots. The more "new" soil being added at more times will be good for the plant growth too. Have you ever noticed how a plant tends to grow very rapidly after just two weeks of being up-potted? This would allow that to happen more often per plant.

Con - more work. Plus [if they were up-potted multiple times] the longer they are in smaller pots, the more often you will need to water and manage (If it is a hobby, this may be a pro for you...).

Please excuse my 10 minute Paint illustration: (this is assuming that the mediums, nutes, and general environment are the same)

good luck!
mrgg*

Jase4224 · Oct 24, 2015

mrgrowguy said:
I believe there is, when you up-pot into a middle sized pot you will help encourage your roots to use as much of the soil space as possible.If you ever notice a rootbound plant in a small pot seems like there are roots everywhere, but if you cut the root ball open you would see a lot of wasted space in the middle. Up potting multiple times will help to avoid the roots from being primarily around the edges.

However, up potting multiple times can be a lot of work, and your lifestyle may not make that easy. For me, I would like to with my pepper plants, but with my many 'other' plants that I have going and all of the cloning that I have to do, up potting would be a huge time sink. So you will have to weigh the benefits to see if it is worth it to you. Thus, I pick and chose which plants I dedicate more time to. My medicinal plants get the priority for me.

Do you need to mid-size up-pot? No, definitely not. You will end up with trees either way, as long as you give them all the nutes and everything they want. Plus some patience.

Pro - better use of soil by the roots. The more "new" soil being added at more times will be good for the plant growth too. Have you ever noticed how a plant tends to grow very rapidly after just two weeks of being up-potted? This would allow that to happen more often per plant.

Con - more work. Plus [if they were up-potted multiple times] the longer they are in smaller pots, the more often you will need to water and manage (If it is a hobby, this may be a pro for you...).

Please excuse my 10 minute Paint illustration: (this is assuming that the mediums, nutes, and general environment are the same)

good luck!
mrgg*

Thanks for that I appreciate the effort you put into your response. I will do a gradual pot up, I'll go to 8inch pots before their final pot size maybe a month or so later. I will also put a few plants straight into larger pots to do a side by side comparison to see if I notice any difference by the end of the growing season. I'm also doing a side by side comparison of topped vs non topped plants but will keep the too experiments seperate.

Cheers

mrgrowguy · Oct 24, 2015

AWesome, I love doing/seeing side-by-sides. Can't wait to see what you get. Please post some picks in a few months!