rootbound question.

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blondlebanese

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i have some plants in 1 gallon pots since they were rooted clones. for about 3.5 months now. so i'm sure they are root bound. about 2 weeks ago they started to show signs of stress. the leaves are twisting and bright green on the edges. kept under six t-5 ho tubes. they stoped growing at 12 inches about 4-6 weeks ago. my question is this. is the stress deadly? if so then how long to live. i have kept plants for 10 weeks in 1 gallon pots and they recovered. 12 inches seems to be as tall as they get in 1 gallon pots. the plants are husky, lots of branching and foliage.
 
I have plants in 1 gal bags that are 3' and only 6 weeks from clone. They are flowering now. Stress can kill the plant or it can make it produce more, like low stress training. It depends if you are stressing it in other ways.
 
Is your intention to flower them or to just keep them as mothers? For mothers you could just trim them down and remove some roots.
 
I don't think small containers really affect the plants that much (in terms of stress). Plenty of peeps have grown full plants in solo cups with great health.

When I clone, my clones stay in the cups for 4 to 5 weeks. By that time, yeah sure, they are root bound, but it doesn't seem to affect the plant's health. You do have to water twice a day LOL. But, other than that, I have never had "root bound" problems with pot plants.

Like umbra said, I would look for something else that's stressing the plants.
 
That is what i have found. 1 gallon plant = 1 foot of growth and on up. Hammy can do it, but I can't keep a plant in a one gallon plant for too long. I am just not that good of a grower.
 
should i be feeding my root bound plants anything other than water? they need to stay root bound for four more weeks when i have room for them. i don't want to encourage growth yet.
 
They need food and need to be watered more and more often as they get more rootbound.
 
My clones are still in the solo cups and you can see in the pic, that they are pretty big (for a solo cup). (The 2 racks in the rear, not the 2 in the front)

These clones are 4 weeks old and I am trying to stunt their growth a little while the current crop finishes.

Right now, these plants need watered every day. And, I add nutes (1/2 dose) every time I water. There is no nutrient left in the soil so without adding nutes, the plants will yellow and die rather quickly.

Usually, I would have transplanted these to their next step pot (#1`nursery pot) a few days ago. But, like I said, I am trying to slow their growth just a little.

I also put the light at 18/6 rather than 24/0 in hopes that would slow the green growth a little and promote more root growth.

In 4 or 5 more weeks, the plants go from a #1 nursery pot (about 3 quarts) to a #3 nursery pot (about 2-1/2 gal) and then into the flower room.

View attachment clones3weeks.jpg
 

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