Bigger Pot = Longer Grow Time

[Tony21]

I agree too, my sweets spot is 25 L pots. I think all the enviro factors play a role.
I mostly grow 6 - 12 plants in a run, with a couple of 4 or 6 l hanging baskets in the corners, and they always finish faster. Sometimes the plants in the flower tent won't finish to my rotation schedule, so I just lower the temperature in the vegging tent, reduce light and water. Defoliating heavy also slow them down some i find.
This is easier to see when running many plants of the same strain of course. There is also quite a difference in finish time between plants in a run, up to 3 weeks, sometimes more.

 

[calliandra]

Some very interesting input there, thanks for that. I am particurlarly interested to see how the cosmic queen ends up, would be amazing to see the yield you get using a 56l pot !!!

Yep, though the way it's looking, I'm already suspecting there is a limit to the pot size-plant size/yield correlation, and that it isn't a linearly proportional one either.
Whereby the larger plant's slowness can't really be blamed on the pot size either, since her sister in the small pot is going just as slow haha
I do have tropically humid air in the closet now due to all the lovely foliage and big fabric pots, which may be factoring in.

The reason I'm in 56L pots now is that I'm going no-till (again) and you need a nice soil mass to keep conditions stable enough so the microbial ecosystem in the soil remains stable (and active!) too. Also, I want to grow regulars too in the long run.

Now the Sour Stomper, she finished with 230g yield dry. Back then, I put it down to a series of reasons: pot size and feeding regime, along with the plant's own incredible joy of life on the one hand, that made that plant grow to double its regular size (so double the regular yields made sense), plus I did some light LST that really got the tertiary branches of that plant going (which again is a genetic thing and nothing to do with conditions,but further increased the yield). I actually documented that lovely plant's grow here on AFN too.
And I definitely want to grow her again in my current 56L setup, which is going auto-perpetual as soon as I get a giant photoperiod grown out (hopefully by May haha, all depends on the CQ's getting their shit together and finishing )

So yeah, I agree there's a limit too. At the moment, I'm tempted to say it's around 10gallons, 40L, for living soil. Not just based on the fact that the Sour Stomper still had a relatively "normal" finishing time while the Cosmic Queens is now dawdling (which as said, probably has other reasons). I know a guy who does an auto perpetual in 10G no-tills, and he's been systematically growing his way through one seedbank after the other in those, experiencing regular finishing times whilst also increasing his yields.

Cheers!

 

[KonopCh]

@calliandra what about coco, do you have some practice with it?

 

[Nabzter]

Yep, though the way it's looking, I'm already suspecting there is a limit to the pot size-plant size/yield correlation, and that it isn't a linearly proportional one either.
Whereby the larger plant's slowness can't really be blamed on the pot size either, since her sister in the small pot is going just as slow haha
I do have tropically humid air in the closet now due to all the lovely foliage and big fabric pots, which may be factoring in.

I agree with the above, although i didnt actually hit that limit, however if we are talking feasability it became clear 20l was good for me due to the lack of correlation between yield and pot size. For example when pull8ng approx 5 oz using 20l pots it wasnt worth the extra 10l just for additional oz or so.

However on the flip side i am still not convinced that larger pots dont delay the whole start to finish process. For example when growing out a photo in a larger pot you must veg for longer in order to optimise and i think autos somehow self optimise the space they are given. Of course its just a theory and i have no proof other than what i have discovered by using a variety of pot sizes myself. I may do a side by side comparison of a 10l pot vs 20l pot. I guess that would still be flawed due to different phenos.

 

[calliandra]

@calliandra what about coco, do you have some practice with it?

well.. I have coco in my mix, but that's not what you meant, I know
Nope sorry, I haven't any experience with coco as medium, nor with feeding nutrients directly - synthetic or organic.
My hunch would be that in such systems, the root space, whilst still relevant, isn't going to make or break the grow as easily as when the plant sources everything herself in cooperation with the soil microbes?
I could be really wrong though!
Cheers!

 

[calliandra]

I agree with the above, although i didnt actually hit that limit, however if we are talking feasability it became clear 20l was good for me due to the lack of correlation between yield and pot size. For example when pull8ng approx 5 oz using 20l pots it wasnt worth the extra 10l just for additional oz or so.

However on the flip side i am still not convinced that larger pots dont delay the whole start to finish process. For example when growing out a photo in a larger pot you must veg for longer in order to optimise and i think autos somehow self optimise the space they are given. Of course its just a theory and i have no proof other than what i have discovered by using a variety of pot sizes myself. I may do a side by side comparison of a 10l pot vs 20l pot. I guess that would still be flawed due to different phenos.

Yeah of course this whole discussion is circling around feasability, the way I understood it too.
I'll be seeing in the next months how others Mephisto strains do in those 56L pots, but am already kind of preparing to see longer life cycles. If they get too long, it will kind of defeat the purpose of an auto perpetual, which, next to being easier to manage in restricted infrastructures (same light schedule throughout) is meant to have a quicker turnaround

And still, there must be a point beyond which it just doesn't matter.
Think of outdoor autos in the ground, with endless space to spread their roots out into (unless compaction layers or such, plus we need to remember that our pots contain O-horizon type soil all the way whilst it's only a thin layer or it outside). they're known to take longer outdoors than in, but they still do finish

So for our purposes indoor, looking at the lower limit, i.e. from which pot size downwards does it affect plant growth negatively, is maybe the sounder path of inquiry? Do tag me if you decide to go with that side by side idea despite the possibility of phenos
cheers!

 

[G.Leave]

Think of outdoor autos in the ground, with endless space to spread their roots out into (unless compaction layers or such, plus we need to remember that our pots contain O-horizon type soil all the way whilst it's only a thin layer or it outside). they're known to take longer outdoors than in, but they still do finish

Ive had plenty of autos planted in the ground with unlimited root expansion possible finish on que to quoted finish times.

 

[calliandra]

Ive had plenty of autos planted in the ground with unlimited root expansion possible finish on que to quoted finish times.

Yeah there's so much that factors in - temperature swings, humidity, sun exposure, the quality of the soil itself...!
Awesome, I imagine you must have very nice conditions!!
Our guerilla guys here in central Europe, hiding their grows in small spruce forest clearings, with frosts bouncing in heyday in mid July too if they get unlucky, don't even come close
Cheers!

 

[G.Leave]

Yeah there's so much that factors in - temperature swings, humidity, sun exposure, the quality of the soil itself...!
Awesome, I imagine you must have very nice conditions!!
Our guerilla guys here in central Europe, hiding their grows in small spruce forest clearings, with frosts bouncing in heyday in mid July too if they get unlucky, don't even come close
Cheers!

Our season is all over the place...usually the autos arent exposed to too much cold during mid/late flower. One repeating pattern i see overall is cold climates definitely do slow down the flowering and make them take longer. Ive also noticed autos in limited light always take longer

 

[G.Leave]

Yeah there's so much that factors in - temperature swings, humidity, sun exposure, the quality of the soil itself...!
Awesome, I imagine you must have very nice conditions!!
Our guerilla guys here in central Europe, hiding their grows in small spruce forest clearings, with frosts bouncing in heyday in mid July too if they get unlucky, don't even come close
Cheers!

DP Brooklyn Sunrise 75 days (10-11 week quoted finish) 112grams dry