Root Balls

I thought I might post this thread to get some feedback on the sizes of containers people use and their thougths as to why....

I see most people growing indoors using a 5 gallon bucket for the rooting system.

I wonder why....

If handy little buckets came in 8 gallon sizes, would that be the popular size? I mean why 5 gallon buckets? Is there anything magical about 5 gallon containers?

In growing Whore and Cunt, I used 8 or 12 quart containers...

To those that followed the grow, you know that I theorized you didnt need...or even want a 5 gallon bucket to grow good weed and get good harvests.

My thoughts being I was very limited in room and a 5 gallon bucket, while it could be accomodated, just wasnt needed.

Hence, I layer the bottom of my container with small size red lava rock....(excellent source of minerals)

The idea was, I wanted to bottom water the plant, to allow the water to hit the tap roots immediately, thus keeping the root system small and compact.

The rocks allowed the water to sit at the bottom of the container and drink what it needed when it needed it without my interference.

I figured the plant knows better than I when it needs to drink.

The rock would absorb the water and the soil would extract it as it needed it and thereby I was able to keep the soil damp at all times....as the plant used what it needed.

Anyhow, I wanted to post a pic of Cunts root system.

Indeed, the roots grew over and threw the rocks and quite nicely performed as expected. I think this system was one of the reasons Cunt and Whore had such nice long and tall buds.

Not saying this is the only way obviously, but, when growing or planning for growth, don't think that 5 gallon buckets are your only options, because they are not.

IN taking apart the root structure, I was really impressed how much the roots had thrived in the lava rock itself.

The roots were literally in the rocks, between them and had made the rocks part of the root system.

I think however this setup makes the roots so much more sensitive to the nutes and if you water from the bottom, when adding your nutes, make sure you do it from the soil surface is the advice I would give.

Cunt and Whore...neither one, liked being fed nutes other than organic bat guano tea, which was primarily nitrogen.

I think the lava rock provided all the minerals the plants needed.

Anyhow here are the pics of the root system. I thought this might be a good subject to expound upon....

I hear so many people say you want to GROW the roots and feeding the roots food to make them even bigger...

Roots have become as much focus of the grow as the foilage has....and I think the key is also to keep focused on foilage growth.....

Anyhow, So much I need to learn in this area, I thougt it might be nice to get some feedback and thoughts....I am really fasicnated with the rooting structure and its relationship to yeild in INDOOR SOIL grow...thanks for sharing....

HARD

I read an article recently where it said that yield was in direct relationship to the size and health of the roots...all else the way it should be i.e. light, ventilation, temps, etc.. I'll see if I can find it (probably not as I read a lot) but it was suggesting that larger containers were the most effective means of getting the holy grail of yields we all dream of. It also mentioned that many of the top growers were experimenting with longer (deeper) containers as they felt the tap root was the most important part of the root system and not allowing it to bend all over the place to fit in a smaller container was also a key to mega yields and a super healthy plant.

Some of these same people have said that they did tests with Superthrive vs. no Superthrive and saw absolutely no difference in yield or the quality of the root systems or plant. I thought you might find that interesting HD.

Just my 2 cents:

During my first grow, the plants were transplanted twice: seedling flats to 1 gallon to 3 gallon containers.

This time, I sprouted in wet cloth baby diapers and put the best looking seedlings directly into 3 gallon containers. Since I used bag seeds of four distinctly different quality bud, I sprouted 10 seeds of each and selected 12 to plant; the three best from each type pot. (Like film at a concert, seeds are cheap and you just get one chance, so use more than you think you'll need).

Seems like everyone says that their plants thrived and "took off" when repotted. But mine would spend two days recovering, even though I've grown tomatoes for years and am pretty good about being careful with not damaging roots.

Also: I have a few tiny runts out of the main light and I pratically drowned them in bat guano tea at more than triple strength, just to see what damage to be looking for with my good girls...but they were unchanged and have grown a bit.

Just my 2 cents~