View Full Version : Question on root space
Da1KrayzieThug
12-16-2005, 09:36 AM
Is there a chart that shows how big of a bucket a plant will need for whatever size it's at? Zandor one of your charts would really be helpful here. I want to know this because I am making a hydroponics setup for my tomatoes and I would like to know how big to get the buckets. I am also going to have seperate buckets with a DWC setup on each of them for each plant. I'm mostly making everything to grow lowryder strains so the plants wont be very big. Then once Gren Green's breeders book comes out I am going to get that and try to make some really potent hybrid strains that keep the 100% autoflower trait. SO basically I'm looking for a chart that says how big the bucket should be for how big the plant currently is. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
-Krayzie
P.S. I might be back for a while.
LOC NAR1958
12-16-2005, 12:27 PM
every time I hear them talk about it is 3 gallon buckets. I could be wrong but I think that'a as small as you want to get.
Zandor
12-16-2005, 03:53 PM
Bigger is better.
In hydro you worry more about the root ball. You need to figure how big you want the plants to finish and then select the net pot accordingly. For SOG grows the 3 3/4" net pots are about as small as you want to grow. The plants finish less than 30" and do just fine. For a DWC you want more of an 8" net pot and the plant can grow up to around 48-60" tall at finish.
There is no chart that I know of but experience tells me those sizes work.
Is that want you are talking about?
Go with a 5 gallon bucket for each tomato plant for hydro.
mafia819
12-16-2005, 05:14 PM
For Full Plant Maturation (Maximum Space Available)
Rule of Thumb: Add 1 Gal Pot for each feet you want a plant to grow up to and 5 - 7 Gallons bucket is enough for all size you could reach indoor.
In other words, If you want 3 feet tall plants then use 3 gal pots and if you want 7 feet tall plants use 7 gal pots.
Hope this helps :)
Happy Growing! :smokin:
Zandor
12-17-2005, 02:26 AM
For Full Plant Maturation (Maximum Space Available)
Rule of Thumb: Add 1 Gal Pot for each feet you want a plant to grow up to and 5 - 7 Gallons bucket is enough for all size you could reach indoor.
In other words, If you want 3 feet tall plants then use 3 gal pots and if you want 7 feet tall plants use 7 gal pots.
Hope this helps :)
Happy Growing! :smokin:That does not work for Hydro and this is the Hydro section so I assumed they were talking about hydro.
5 gal is fine for up to 7' plants too in dirt
Da1KrayzieThug
12-17-2005, 04:19 AM
Actually Zandor you got my point exactly. Thanks. And yea I was talking about hydro. But how big would I need the pot to be if I grew LowRyders which aren't supposed to grow much taller than about 12 inches. Plus, I dunno but, I like the idea of having tiny pots with tiny plants. Makes it almost possible for a windowcil type plant :D But other than that I think it helped out real nicely. It's great to be back and thanks for responding so quickly, like usual.
Zandor
12-17-2005, 04:21 PM
3 3/4" is about as small as I would go and still use grow rocks. You can use the 2" net pots but to use them correctly you need rubber plugs to hold the plant in the center of the net pot and no grow rocks. The roots get all the room (what little there is left) in the net pots. Those do need to be feed from the underside more like an Aeroponics system or a fog system. You can't feed from the top when you use the 2" net pots with plugs there is no room.
Did that help you dude?
growinit
12-18-2005, 07:35 AM
Hi, I want to build a SOG hydro system, for around 30 inch tall plants. I was trying to decide between 6" tubes with netpots in them, or a dutch-bucket system with either 1- or 2-gallon pots. Both would use grow rocks.
If I used the tubes, a 5" netcup would be the bigest that would fit, vs the 1- or 2-gallon pots if the dutch-buckets. You mentioned that a 3 1/2" netpot would be the minimum for a 30" plant, but if there was no size limit, what would be the ideal pot for that size plant? Like, would a 1 gallon pot with rocks be better than the 5? netpot, and would a 2-gallon pot be even better? Or would the extra pot space be wasted with that small of a plant?
BTW, if I did use aero tubes with 5? netpots, would there be any point to using aero sprayers on the sides of the netpots or would continuous drip be just as good (like would the roots all be inside the netpot with not that much outside it to spray)?
thanks
LOC NAR1958
12-18-2005, 02:29 PM
The netpots just hold the root ball from being submerged in water that's where the rot begins. The water level in your bucket is just below the bottom of your netpots so as to stay mostly dry. The rest of the roots can become massive and hang in the water 24/7, water roots. Look at my thread. I grow 6 plants in a 5 to 8 gallon container. By the end it is full of roots, I mean massive amounts. I can grow 6 up to 3 feet but that's wasted growing that tall inside. Monster bitch is over 3 feet and in a 3 inch netpot and about to split the pot wide open. I would like some lowryder myself, one day.
Zandor
12-18-2005, 03:45 PM
growinit - If you are going to try hydro for the first time you may want to try the buckets. Growing SOG is not as easy as you would think, you need to have a few hydro grows under your belt before you try SOG is what I would recommend.
When you grow SOG you need to have the experience to know what the plant is going to do before it does it.
One gallon buckets with grow rocks is good for even taller plants so building a type of ebb & grow system using 2-one gallon buckets per plant is a good idea and should be easer to grow and manage.
LOC gives some very good advice as well.
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