New Grower Advice on a transplant of sorts. Need help please.

[The Squid]

Hello fellow forum-goers...

I have four young seedlings(3 days or less) that are in 3 gallon felt pots. For several reasons I don't want to use these anymore. I want pots that are a little smaller and easier to work with. It's been difficult to deal with these seedlings in the bigger pots; hard to move around, basically impossible or just really tricky to check runoff at this point as I cannot water them that much.
I have been looking more into the tier method that several growers here are using. I think this would work great for me. So much easier to handle and check runoff until they're big enough to tier into bigger pots, maybe 1.5 gallons this time due to space in my tent.
Alright, alright what I'm getting at is if I can transplant these out of the 3 gallons into party cups? Then onward after that.
Considering they are super young and don't have a lot of root structure I thought this would be ok. My idea was to cut the bottom out of a party cup and push it down around the baby and scoop her up out of there placing her in another party cup with bottom intact.
Would this work?

Much appreciated

 

[JM]

yes you can transplant... but might be better off using both hands and kinda "scooping" in around an area larger than the root ball enough not to crack the soil directly around the base of the plant as the roots are very fragile at this point... I wouldn't try the party cup tehcnique personally... the cone shape is against your equasion I think... at least the party cup in my mind's eye..

 

[The Squid]

I see what you mean. Since it gets smaller going down that could cause some damage. How far down do you think the roots are at just a few days? So I can just carefully scoop them out and into the cups that way? Thanks man.

 

[namvet]

How come your not putting them in bigger pots? Make sure soil is damp and cut a circle around them five inches in diameter and five inches deep .put your fingers from both hands down and around them ,and give the soil a little pressure to compact the soil alittle and pull it out of the pot.Make sure what ever your putting it in is set to go and try and keep root ball together as you place it in the container.

 

[The Squid]

I will be transplanting them back into bigger pots later. It's a bitch to handle these 3 gallon felt pots with small seedlings. They like to separate the soil when you move them since they're soft, and I can't check runoff because I can't water them that much right now. Just all around will be so much easier to handle and take care of these babies in party cups. And when the time comes I will tier them into bigger pots. Thanks namvet for the advice. Sounds good. Doing that today and I will post an update in my journal.