Transplanting from ceramic pot?

I need to transplant from my ceramic pot, but I can't seem to do it without all the soil falling out! I heard that you're supposed to wet the soil a bit before you transplant (which I did) but there seems to be dry soil pockets that just come crumbling out. Walmart didn't have any plastic pots (surprisingly) and so I had to go with ceramic. GOD it's making me so frustrated. And it's not like there's anything I can do to ease my frustration for at least 2 months...and now it might be longer because I pushed some of the roots from the bottom UP so that the soil would come out-to no effect.

HELP PLEASE!

Suggest you do a li'l more reading brah, because what you "heard" was not correct.

If you wait for a plant to need transplanting, and let it get good and dry.
The rootball will become a solid mass.
You can slide a butcher knife around the inside, give it a good rap,
(turn the pot upside down with your hand on the soil surface and rap the pot's edge against the table's edge surface),and the rootball will come out and stay intact.
Might not even need the butcher knife.
When dry enough, most soils will pull away from the pot all the way around.

Set it into well prepared, moist, (not wet), soil in the larger container.
If you put the old pot in the newpot first, on enough soil to bring it level with the rim, and then back-fill around it, you will have a perfectly shaped hole to set your rootball into.
No stress at all.
Leave it sit for a day so the thirsty roots will go water hunting, then you can lightly water the rootball with the same kine water you used for the up-pot soil.

There should be no transplant shock when done this way.

Take some time to dig through the archives here.
This and a lot more is there for the reading.
Just click the everyt'ing link in my sig. and you're on your way to being a happy grower.

Aloha,
Weezard

Another thought is... perhaps your plant isn't quite ready for a transplant yet. Transplanting can be done at any time but it definitely goes over more smoothly when your roots have thoroughly filled the pot. Its the mess of tangled roots that holds your soil clump together. Also if you do lose some of the soil during transplanting I don't think its a huge issue, perhaps a little added shock and some real minor time that your plant will be slowed down, at least in my experience. Over time it'll get easier and easier to identify when your plants need to be transplanted and when they don't. One thing you don't want to have happen, and this is more likely to happen when your soil is saturated with water, is that a clump of your soil will fall off, and take a large chunk of the healthy roots with it because it weighs so much, and I'm speaking with experience on that... :(

Anyways, keep up on what Weezard said he knows what hes doing, just don't be too concerned about soil falling out if its not damaging or messing with your roots much, you'll be fine. Cannabis is a very resiliant plant, and a days worth of stalled growth from transplant shock is a small price to pay for doing the right thing, and it only gets easier with practice so have at it! Good luck and keep askin questions my friend.

O__O

THANK YOU!

Ok, so I did like you said and waited for the soil to get good and dry. Then I took a thin knife and went around the edges. I also tapped the sides of the pot. Well, only the top half came out. I guess the only reason that would happen is that the bottom of the pot was still wet. Unfortunately half of the roots seemed to disconnect, so I'm expecting my plant to have a little shock. So I just watered her and put her away from the light a bit. I hope this doesn't turn out badly, she's the only one i gots T_T

But thank you for your help.

One thing I learned about ceramic pots is that the roots can actually work their way into the pourous surface, even though its not hugely pourous. When this happens the roots will actually grab the sides and hold on tight, so the knife thing works for the sides, but not the bottom. Bottom line is, never use that ceramic pot again. Use thin, flexible pots. The ability to flex them helps to get them to detatch from the sides.

Lastly.. I think you'll be fine as long as you still have a good portion of roots left. There will be a longer period of shock, and your plant may look a little bit sickly for a little while, but don't panic and start trying to mess with it too much to correct the issue. One thing people forget is that TIME is the best cure for things like this. Just leave her be, and tone down the nute feedings, if you're feeding her at all. Again, some pics would be nice! even if they're simple, low quality cell phone pics or something. It gives us all a much better idea on what to tell you for help. Good luck and stick with it, she'll be fine.

Also how old is she now? And how many leaf sets (excluding the first single leaf set) does she have?

I submitted a long reply with pictures. I guess C.com has to approve of them first.

Hmm thats strange I've never had to deal with that before, perhaps because you have so few post so far.

*sigh* Ok, do-over
One month old Jock Horror (from Nirvana) http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7017/6...2fd71c6f_z.jpg
She's a bit dirty from my trying to transplant the other day http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7013/6...b771a072_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7027/6...89366513_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7019/6...7d2dfe91_b.jpg
Here are the other two, but they're not doing as well because I had to plant them in the same container for germination: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7155/6...d8149765_b.jpg

Setup: 400 watt hps in closet. Just changed light hours from 18/6 to 12/12. There's an oscillating fan on during the day, but off at night since the temperatures drop (I leave the window open for fresh air...inconspicuously of course). I use tap water that sits out over night so that the chlorine evaporates. Miracle Grow organic for the soil, mixed with some perlite. I water every two days, and I mix in Flora Gro and Flora Micro....about a teaspoon per gallon. The only problems I have (besides being a noob) are fungus gnats, and keeping the temperature regulated. Since it's a small space, the light can easily make the room reach 80f with the door shut, and at night the temps drop as low as 40f, but I'm trying my best to keep it balanced.

Thanks for any tips or advice. As far as the transplanting, I'm going to wait until she's dry and bend one of my cheap knives to a 90 degree angle and try to scrape the bottom of the pot by going through the large drainage hole. That sounded rather dirty :b