Flowering Rootbound Mother

[brainfood33]

Hi everyone, my first post in a long while and faced with a new issue.

I decided to flower my mostly Sativa (Sensi Seeds Jack Flash) mother plant that had already stopped growing in height as she was nearly 5' tall in a 2 gallon pot.

1) I assume this means that she was rootbound?
2) Was this a mistake?

She has been on 12/12 for 4 weeks now and is producing buds that don't seem very big for this amount of time but are still developing, with resin now starting to appear on the small bud leafs.

Normally, the plants grow a huge amount more when switched to 12/12 for the first 3 weeks or so but she has only stretched a few inches.

3) What further problems, if any, am I likely to face before harvest in approximately another 6 weeks due to her being rootbound?

I'll try to take some photos later that will also show some other health issues such as some yellowing fan leafs but any advice you can give me at the moment will be very helpful.

Thanks!
Yours, patiently awaiting next smoke.

[O'skool]

Do her a favor and put her in a 5 gal bucket...Wait till she's dry, then gently transplant her...try not to break up any roots...If indeed she's a Sativa she can go longer then the 10 weeks you've planned...Can go as long as 15+ weeks..Wish you had pictures ...she does sound like a nice size plant..hang in there...
Good Luck

[anbesol]

5 feet tall? 2Gallon Pot? TRANSPLANT!!!!

[brainfood33]

Thanks guys.

The reason why I didn't transplant earlier was the difficulty in achieving this on my own with such a big plant, which for privacy reasons needs to be the case.

If I don't transplant, what are the potential problems I could face?

If I do transplant, then is my plant going to be excessively stressed?

[brainfood33]

She's not in the best of health it has to be said.

Will the transplant make a big difference after 4 weeks of flowering?

[Weezard]

Yes!

[O'skool]

What are you feeding her?...If you can't transplant then don't ... she'll be ok... I'm thinking its more having to do with what you been giving/not giving her...when you water does it just run out?

[stinkyattic]

There's NO WAY to maintain correct soil chemistry in the small a pot and she WILL die before harvest looking like that.

If you can't do a correct transplant, do a double-pot where you fill a 5 gallon pail with fresh soil to within 4" of the rim, then take a sawz-all and chop the bottom 4" of the current pot off, avoiding the roots- or a pair of tin snips if it's a thin pot- and place it ON the other soil. The fill in the sides.

FLUSH WELL before you do this and allow to dry out again. Your plant is showing signs of soil salting.

You also MUST feed a correct bloom fert.

That plant will probably finish rootbound even in a 5 gal pail. Ideally, a large feed tub or trash can cut down to about 3 feet tall and punched full of holes with a power drill and 3/4" paddle bit would be better.

[brainfood33]

Thanks again for the responses folks.

I decided after reading some more transplant threads last night that I must do it as I also concluded that I have been hiding from the truth that she is not a healthy girl and would struggle to complete her life cycle, leaving me hugely disappointed.

So today I bought a 5 gallon pot and some compost for "acid loving/lime hating" plants and made a trouble free transplantation. She was due to be watered and the root mass easily separated from the old pot which was not too stressful for either of us thankfully! :)

One thing I didn't do which is now worrying me though after reading your post Stinky, was to flush. I just went in with a full strength fert feed (Bio-Bizz, top of the range Bloom fert from my 'friendly' grow shop).
What should I now be worried about? Major nute burn and ceratin death, or just a lack of recovery from the previous issues?
Should I flush her tonight after her earlier feed or wait until she's thirsty again?

I usually grow hydroponically which is why I'm so crap at this! :(

[DTRave420]

Um,correct me if I'm wrong here,i've never heard of cannabis being an acid loving plant...:wtf:

[brainfood33]

PH below 7.0 is acidic, so yes, they love acidic soil.

[stinkyattic]

No they really don't.
They love soil that is VERY SLIGHTLY acidic- pH 6.7- and remember that pH is a logarithmic scale and that means that for every pH point, you have a 10x multiplier for acidity. Acid loving plants include the azaleas, camellias, and rhododendrons, as well as orchids- They thrive at a pH about 10 TIMES more acidic than cannabis.
Never use Miracid, orchid food, or any 'acid loving plant' product on your cannabis plants.

You're going to have to re-pot, adding lime to bring the pH back to neutral. Peat moss is already acidic and it will be dropping off anyway, as soon as the lime is used up.

Read the continuous canopy and embedded why to transplant threads stickied at the top of 'Basic'.

[brainfood33]

Shit. Then I've seriously messed this up then.

It was soil for azaleas that I got from the garden centre since the grow shop was all out.
Damn it! :(

So, I'll repot again tonight but now that the soil is watered, will the transplant be a lot more difficult?

Instead of lime, can I just flush with a very alkaline water?
I have PH Up in my PH kit, so will that do the job?
Maybe it is lime?

[stinkyattic]

pH up is probably Potassium hydroxide.
Yeah, it will be tough- but worht it.
Flsuhing with very alkaline water is going to shock the plant, because you don't know about the soil already in the root ball. Just gently remove it and lay it on its side and then mix some lime into the soil- look in the 'organic' section for soil recipes and where they say 'peat moss' or 'peat', insert 'azalea dirt' lol. The ratio of lime to peat based soil is what you are looking for, not other additives.

I've done the exact same thing myself. Not with soil, but running orchid food and azalea food, assuming noobishly that 'acid' applied to ANY plant that liked a pH in the acid range... argh! lol

[brainfood33]

Stinky, I really really appreciate your help with this because if you hadn't come along when you did, I would have had to wait MUCH longer for my next smoke after slowly and painfully killing my plant, and that is if I didn't decide to sacrifice myself to the MJ gods before then for being such an idiot!

I actually had some leftover Professional+ Canna Terra compost from the growshop from last time which a) I didn't think I had enough of and b) I read here that it will have too much Nitrogen which will create a phase of stretching which would possibly make her too tall for the room.

So since I may not have time tonight, I just went ahead woke her from her sleep and did a rapid transplant with that soil which only took 15 mins!
I used my hands and shovelled out all of the Azalea soil (from yesterday) from around the root mass and repeated last night's process with the Canna stuff.

Does this mean I don't need the lime or an Alkaline flush anymore since the roots never had time to meet the Azalea soil? I hope so because then I'll have to do it again!

Going back to your first post, should I now flush her to clear the problems she was facing from being rootbound, even though I just fed her with full strength nutes last night?

Thanks again! :)

[stinkyattic]

Now you don't have to worry about the lime.
As for the stuff from before, your fresh roots will be going into new soil. You should have flushed BEFORE repotting, because until the roots get into the new soil, they cant take moisture out, and the soil may become soggy and waterlogged- you will need to wait a little while if you are going to flush now, for the roots to make inroads into the new medium. Just give a nice light watering with plain tap water at this point to settle the root ball, and then return to a regular schedule of a quality bloom food.

Keep your temps down while your plant recovers from its rootboundness and transplant- don't go above 85, and preferably stay around 78.

[brainfood33]

You should have flushed BEFORE repotting, because until the roots get into the new soil, they cant take moisture out, and the soil may become soggy and waterlogged-

Hahaha, OMG I am just destined to fail here amn't I? :(

The temp in my flower room is low 80s with the lights on so hopefully she'll recover and not need a flush.
So a light nute-free watering it is and I'll just hope that it works out.

Thanks again!

[DTRave420]

Hahaha, OMG I am just destined to fail here amn't I? :(

The temp in my flower room is low 80s with the lights on so hopefully she'll recover and not need a flush.
So a light nute-free watering it is and I'll just hope that it works out.

Thanks again!

EZ there brainfood33!!!

First of all,give yourself a pat on the back for transplanting a five footer in a two gallon pot...I've done lots of 2 gallon to five gallon transplants,but never with anything that tall...

I'm not the botanist that Stinky is,(nothing but admiration for her),i've never owned a PH meter and wouldn't know how to read it if I did...

You make it through this grow,you'll make it through anything!!!:D

I think you're destined to succeed...:420thought:

[brainfood33]

Well thanks for the encouragement DT, I reluctently patted my back and I feel better now. :)

I'm just a bit annoyed at myself that I ignored the problems for so long and naively expected it all to work out fine without making any changes.
I thought that being rootbound and not stretching in the flowering stage was a good thing because she was too big as it was!
I'm also annoyed that I didn't read enough of the great info available on this site before doing a soil grow thinking that if I can grow in hydro then I know it all. I was wrong!

I wonder how many stupid newbies like me Stinky has managed to help get their smoke when they were heading for certain disaster?

I'll update this thread with new pics of my hopefully fully recovered and thriving girl whenever that may be.