I always thought transplanting Auto's just puts to much stress on them and stunts them? I was always told never keep a plant in a cup longer than a week because once that Taproot bottoms out it will adapt to that size and essentially stunt it. Is that incorrect information?
Is it as long as its not flowering? or what? How long can you actually keep it in a small media like a cup or small bag of coco?
Hi 777! :thumbs:
First of all what kingpin420 did is not a normal transplanting, he just cuts the bottom of the cup and puts the cup inside a bigger pot with new soil. With this chances of stress are very reduced, in my opinion.
About transplanting autos you're a bit right, if the grower is not very sure about what he's doing and chances of stressing the plants are significant, then it's better to use only one pot. But using only one pot also has its tricks and the grower has to be carefull with a few things that can be even more stressing to plants than a transplant.
I personally prefer do transplant them. First I use a cup of about 200ml for the first week. Then a pot of 500ml until day 18 from germination. And then I transplant them to the final pots (I use at least 7 litre pots as final container).
This works great for me but of course one has to be gentle when transplanting and experience counts. There's also the option of using only one pot but then in the first 2 or 3 weeks you have a small plant with a small root structure inside a big pot with lots of soil unreached by the roots. This means that one has to be careful and not use too much water in the first weeks, of else the small root will not be able to reach to all the water and this will make the soil to be moisty for a few days in a row, which can be very bad for the plants development.
So doing it all with just one pot also depends a bit on the experience of the grower. Giving them the right amount of water is very important... and then you can't just underwater them as they also need the water stimulation to develop their root system.
With all this in consideration I really think the method kingpin420 uses is maybe the best option.
I also use it since a couple of years ago, have a look, I have it all explained here:
https://www.autoflower.org/f142/big-devil-2-%AE-%7C-fast-bud-2-%AE-test-grow-22165-2.html
Cheers guys, sweet smokes!
tommy