Cross grow technique transplant during 12/12

[Puffzter]

Hello.
I have a bit of a situation here.
I have a grow of 5 beautiful WWs here in handwatered coco. They grow mad, don't have a single blemish in them and generally all is fine except one thing.
They drink MAD and I am in wheelchair. I can handle it but the workload is a bit on the heavy side as space is a bit cramped.
So I ordered a 8 plant bubbler system (and a 25 plant cloner) to get out of the 12h watering schedule I need to keep now.
Thing is there was a delay. I was hoping to transpland,t from coco to the bubbler end of this week and set 12/12 a few days later. I HAVE to start 12/12 in a few days or they wont have enough room to stretch. Since this is my first grow I am set on having this grow natrual to learn the plants. I FIMed one to learn that but for the rest I wont touch them more than when forced and just study these plants.

Now.
Since the bubbler will be late I can't transplant until 5-8 days into 12/12. Will pulling them out, cleaning the roots and put them in net pots in a bubbler freak them out too much you think? What can I do to ease the chock a bit if anything?

You can visit my log if you want to see my general setup and progress so far if you want, link in sig.

Cheers
Puffzter

Puffzter Reviewed by Puffzter on 08-06-2008. Cross grow technique transplant during 12/12 Hello. I have a bit of a situation here. I have a grow of 5 beautiful WWs here in handwatered coco. They grow mad, don't have a single blemish in them and generally all is fine except one thing. They drink MAD and I am in wheelchair. I can handle it but the workload is a bit on the heavy side as space is a bit cramped. So I ordered a 8 plant bubbler system (and a 25 plant cloner) to get out of the 12h watering schedule I need to keep now. Thing is there was a delay. I was hoping to Rating: 5

[scagster]

In my experience, it's gonna take the plant at least a week or so to really reach the flowering state. In that first week or so of 12/12, it's still in the vegetative state and is beginning to transition into flowering. I have transplanted before a few days into 12/12 without a problem, though it's definite not ideal. I once transplanted a female about a month into 12/12 from a 6" pot in soil into a drip system with hydroton, and while it suffered a bit of stress, none of the plant seemed to end up being stunted or died as an end result. Make sure the nutrients aren't too much for the plant to handle at this point obviously.

[GreenDestiny]

That root ball is what's gonna be tricky to get it to work in a bubbler. When using net pots, the roots grow through it and some of the rocks, and then the huge ball mass of crazy roots develop in the water... so if you tried putting the already huge root ball into a net pot, it'd have to be big enough to hold it all and with enough room left in it to support the main stem with rocks. Then depending on the water level, you'd have to wait for roots to grow down into the water or keep the reservoir constantly topped up so the rootball in the pot will be in it. Since you've just started flowering I'm not sure how much more the roots will grow and it's not the best time for the plants to be using energy to seek out water, and of course the shock at this stage can slow it down.

Would be much easier to have bought some stuff to set up a drip system to what you already have... of course, you were planning to have the bubbler system sooner. But, hey, transplanting into a bubbler isn't impossible, it's just a bitch to do if it's grown big.

They do look very nice though!

[Puffzter]

That's what I thought also. Its not then possible to "sort" enough roots out so to say to get at least a decent potion of them out of the pots?
Never seen cleaned roots that grew in a medium before.

Next question would be.
If I do get roots growing into the water will the plant be at risk if I don't keep the water level insanelly high? I mean since a significally part of the rootsystem in my case will be cought in the pots supposedly.

Puffzter

[GreenDestiny]

If there's enough bubbles in there popping it'll keep the roots above the water line wet, aside from the humidity level in the res. I've accidentally forgotten to top up the res and the water level was at about a couple of inches in the bottom but the roots were all still moist and luckily didn't dry out and die.

You could try to cut out a few bigger holes on the pot to help the roots get through it. Probably should keep the water level pretty high at first so that the bottom of the pot is submerged an inch or two to saturate the roots and then over time let the level drop to encourage the roots to grow further down.

My only experiences with DWC were mediumless because I wanted to just skip using net pots and rocks and rockwool... first time I transplanted 5" seedlings from dirt into a bubbler, second time I started germinated seeds straight into a bubbler. The only hard part was finding a way to support the plants as they got heavier, as I hadn't planned that far ahead when I first started.

[Puffzter]

mediumless? I don't understand. What did the plants actually stand in then?

[GreenDestiny]

kinda like how some people will support the clones in a bubble cloner, with some kind of styrofoam or neoprene. In retrospect it wasn't the best way to do it but I made it work.