When to change buckets

[fhydro]

Hi, i'm trying soil after hydro and i'm asking myself a question :

I germ the seeds in little containers. After 2 weeks, i change for bigger buckets but not the definitive ones. I put the plants under 12/12 to sex them, discard the males, and put the females in the definitive buckets till the end.

Is it good, or not? Are there optimal moments to change for bigger buckets, not just after/before setting to 12/12 to avoid root stress in this particular moment, something like that, or is this problem not important. I notice that before 12/12 the plants grow well and after 12/12 they don't thrive a lot, they make buds but stay short, nothing to compare with hydro.

Please, help me.

Fhydro

fhydro Reviewed by fhydro on 12-13-2006. When to change buckets Hi, i'm trying soil after hydro and i'm asking myself a question : I germ the seeds in little containers. After 2 weeks, i change for bigger buckets but not the definitive ones. I put the plants under 12/12 to sex them, discard the males, and put the females in the definitive buckets till the end. Is it good, or not? Are there optimal moments to change for bigger buckets, not just after/before setting to 12/12 to avoid root stress in this particular moment, something like that, or is Rating: 5

[Weedhound]

several questions...you are only vegging for 2 weeks? or did I misread that. Also why change the pots several times--just put them in the pots they are going to finish in with the first transplant.

[bejay]

they may have a little transplant shock when doing it during 12/12 but it shouldnt affect them much, but it is probably ideal to do your last transplant before switching to 12/12.
not sure if you put them in 12/12 to sex and then switched back to a veg cyle, will often slow them down for weeks as they revert back to a veg state.
most plants will show their sex usually when they are 4-7 weeks old so you do not have to put them into 12/12 to sex them.

[fhydro]

Well, i veg them during aprox 4 weeks, so i don't know the sex when i switch to 12/12. I do that to save big containers and bigger volume of soil mix. So, it's not the good way ?
Fhydro

[deftdrummer]

ya, you want to sex in most cases at the earliest point possible so that you know what you are getting into. Once you have established the sex you can grow them nice and big and green! You have a good rough plan, but I wouldn't try to map anything out this soon into the game. If there's one thing I have learned its that you can't have a set plan cause things change on relatively short notice. Like Bejay said it is probably a good idea to wait to switch to 12/12 for a week or so after transplant to give the plants time to recover.

As far as your bigger container question goes; you will only need to change pots when the plants have outgrown their existing pots not any later and not any sooner. You also want to avoid transplanting too much 2-3 times for one plant would be the max cutoff --it causes too much stress in most cases. A good way to tell if the plants need a transplant is if you see no further growth but the plants are nice and green and healthy. Once you put them into new pots you will be able to see immediate growth.

[xcrispi]

listen to weedhound ,
the less stress the better .
peace
crispi

[BlueBear]

Hey X and WH, need to check out my current day of harvest in the in Dore section and you may reconsider the DWC buckets http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-gr...y-harvest.html
Now on to this question. It is not a good idea to transfer into big pots when plants are still small, it is better to move up about a gallon at atime give or take and this is why, when a plant goes into a larger pot that is to big the roots spread out and don't become as abundant and as strong as when they are in a pot that they fill up. The roots end up chasing the water down into this big pot and reach the bottom of the pot before they even fill it up and do not take advantage of the room and hit a dead end before they have been able to really expand and fill out. Also, with pots that are too big you end up wasting your light foot print on soil instead of plant, I mean say you have 8 plants under a 400W in 3 gallon pots and they are only 6 inches tall then you have put almost half of the plants on the edge of the light because you have these big pots and the soil is getting more direct light than the plant. It is better to leave the 8 in smaller pots which fit directly under the light as long as you can.
To tell whether or not the plant is out growing the container put a couple of dozen holes at the bottom of the pot, which you should do any ways for good drainage and when you see roots trying to push threw then you need to think about transplanting. I know stinky does transplants up until the first 2 weeks in flower and I even transplanted the plant in the thread I posted after the first 3 weeks of flower.
I have been able to keep plants in 1 too 2 litter pots for as long as a month depending on the strain, but I think a2 liter for the first 3 weeks is fine and then a 2 gallon and then do the last transplant the first 2 weeks of flower. Remember this is strain dependent too.
Hope I helped some.
Adieu