Pot Stacking...

Ok, apparently either I get too busy, or too lazy. Here's the background...

I ran a grow thru to harvest. (Indica dom - 5 gallon pot) After harvest, I flushed well, and trimmed remaining foliage for a re-veg in the same 5 gallon pot. I do this with virtually every grow, picking the finest example of the run, and re-vegging for clones.

I re-vegged for about a month, and she was ready for the flower room again. When I switched her (around 6 days ago) I transplanted into a 7 gallon pot. I previously broke the original tray for it, so was using the bottom 5 inches or so that I cut from a 5 gallon bucket, and filled it with rocks to keep the pot above any potential standing water. (I don't put my drainage rocks inside of the pots. They do the same thing in the tray without taking-up soil space) Just after transplant, I remembered that I hadn't flushed, so I did so and added a 1/2 dose of Soil Syrup (humic acid) with last gallon of flush-water. (my usual after-flush routine)

All was fine till yesturday, when I lifted the pot out of the makeshift tray to check moisture level from the bottom of the pot, and found around 3 inches of water in the tray, (drippings from the last flush, I guess) and around 6 inches of fresh, white roots sticking out of each of the drainage holes, growing atop/around the top layer of rocks.

I didn't want to cut the roots, so I stacked the 7 gallon pot with the plant, atop a 5 gallon pot with fresh soil, and am letting them do as they please.

Soooo, I'm looking for someone with personal experience with pot-stacking. Do I just keep watering from the very top pot, or do I water as normal, but add water (and nute solution) to the bottom pot, too? Am already planning on vent holes in the side of the 7 gallon to help with moisture control, but would love any insight y'all could offer. I'm guessing that the next flush is going to take a while.

Thanks bunches.

Picture on left: A 5 gallon pot in the makeshift drip tray.
Picture in middle: Peeking at some of the roots sticking out of the 7 gallon pot, which is now atop the 5 gallon one. (the white string-looking stuff)
Picture on right: Glamour shot, lol.

I've never done it that way, but I would assume you should water the top bucket, just as before ... in the ground, you would still be watering 'from the top', regardless of what is beneath, so I see no need to change ... just a guess ... :smokin:

DTRave has a lot of experience with this type of thing. Maybe you could check his threads out, give him a holler.

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Originally Posted by the image reaper

I've never done it that way, but I would assume you should water the top bucket, just as before ... in the ground, you would still be watering 'from the top', regardless of what is beneath, so I see no need to change ... just a guess ... :smokin:

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Have you done it a different/better way, and just don't want to tell me...? (kidding) Your answer is good enough for me. Makes sense, too.

Takes me out of my comfort zone when weird stuff like this happens. My only other option was a 30 gallon half of a whiskey barrel. Weighs a ton, and would take up most of my growspace and the rest of my potting mix.

Thanks for the heads-up Lola. I appreciate it.

I'm gonna try, the double stacking 10 inch pots over 12 inch pots, next time. Just for fun...:jointsmile:...(flowering only)

or 8 inch over 10 inch...whatever, I got.

I'm beginning to wonder if this stacking, may have unseen benefits ... I remember my local nursery-owner telling me, that my tomatoes wouldn't do well in pots, they need 'depth' ... he said a tomato plant sends a very deep taproot down, the diameter isn't nearly as important ... "they love postholes", he said ... tomatoes and cannabis are related, to some degree ... wonder how they'd like that ? ... weird, I've been looking at post-hole diggers at Home Depot, and didn't know what I'd ever use one for :D ...

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Originally Posted by the image reaper

I'm beginning to wonder if this stacking, may have unseen benefits ... I remember my local nursery-owner telling me, that my tomatoes wouldn't do well in pots, they need 'depth' ... he said a tomato plant sends a very deep taproot down, the diameter isn't nearly as important ... "they love postholes", he said ... tomatoes and cannabis are related, to some degree ... wonder how they'd like that ? ... weird, I've been looking at post-hole diggers at Home Depot, and didn't know what I'd ever use one for :D ...

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Yeah...with the post-hole digger...the deepest you can dig is to the bottom of the pot. Totally useless, but it's a fine looking tool indeed, lol.

I'll try and keep-up with it's progress if interested. Might have just stumbled on some new projects to run. (Rusty calls out to wife - "Amber...have you seen my credit card...?" Amber, as usual, pretends not to hear.)

Crap...lost the rest of the post...

Well, the little experiment came to an end. The plant in the stacked pot was getting too tall, and I didn't have enough milk crates to put under all the other ladies. (to even-out the canopy) As far as watering , I added nutes from top, and a little while later (10-20 minutes) added a little bit of fresh water to the lower pot. Upon harvest, roots were about 4" to 6" deep into the lower pot, but wound around the edges of the lower pot. Not sure what that infers, but they didn't grow down as much as I expected. Could be something to do with the holes in the upper pot being too small for this technique. (I really wasn't planning on this in the first place, lol)

If you were to prepare and stack all the plants, and you have plenty of vertical space to work with...this might be a good method, but I have decided to try and save for some 7 gallon buckets. Same diameter as the 5 gallon buckets, but much deeper.

I wonder if this stack method would work better if you took the top pot off and just had the contained soil/roots sitting on top of the lower pot? What do you guys think? I'm considering this method for a few kush strains to test the results.

You might have a problem with the soil drying too fast.
Can also try stacking on a pot that's half full. Would give added rootspace, but not as tall or as unstable as stacking on a full pot.

I wonder what would happen if you cut the entire bottom off of the top pot before setting it on new pot?Where did you find 7 gal pots? I would like to find 5 gal pots the dia. of 3 gal pots to see how they work in limited space.

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Originally Posted by axxxxe

Where did you find 7 gal pots?

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Google: 7 gallon plastic buckets.

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Originally Posted by Rusty Trichome

You might have a problem with the soil drying too fast.
Can also try stacking on a pot that's half full. Would give added rootspace, but not as tall or as unstable as stacking on a full pot.

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Good idea Rusty, I might try that. I'm going to be using 15inch wide plastic potters but I don't know what it equals in gallons. Thanks for the tips.:hippy: