Transplanting Autos Causes Stress. Myth?

alfa88

Auto Warrior
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
Messages
43
Reputation
0
Reaction score
46
Points
0
I've always followed the advice to put the sprout in only 1 container but the last time I did the girl was only an inch(2.5cm) after 3 weeks. A quirk or what?
 
I've always followed the advice to put the sprout in only 1 container but the last time I did the girl was only an inch(2.5cm) after 3 weeks. A quirk or what?
And the cup winner is...same age as. Some just dont grow. Although I had one that I broke standing up at about one inch tall and I just stuck it in the soil with no tap root and it did absolutely nothing for three weeks then took off like crazy and ended up producing anout 2/3 of what her sisters did so there is still hope for you mine is about 40 days no hope, just curious lol
55f33dadf8218879c3f2a438fa2143ae.jpg
e56af0439022214e10c05d9adda387b9.jpg


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
 
I think the real reason behind this is that people are inherently bad at transplanting.
If you were working with a system that enables stress free transplantation (split cup method) and get it done before the tap root hits the bottom of the cup then as far as the plant knows nothing happened.
 
I transplant all the time with no negative effects. When running regular seeds I start them in half gallon juice containers so I don't have to dedicate a full 3 gallon pot to what might be a male. Once they sex I then transplant to the bigger pots. With fem seeds I usually start them in their final pot. My current grow was a combo of fems and regs. By about 25 days when I transplanted the regs in the juice containers were significantly bigger than the fems in the 3 gallon pots. The fems eventually caught up but I have to say I was surprised at how much bigger the regs were.
 
I generally try to put my autos through 1 pot transfer super early on, out of an 8oz pot or less into its full sized container. It minimizes those waseful little runts dont dont fill out root space anyway. I am about to transfer 2 one gallon root bound plants into 3-4 gallon containers, though, and I don't consider this ideal. Any tips to keep stress to a minimum?
 
20170617_125336.jpg

Above is what I've started doing at 8 to 10 days - slicing bottom from the seedling pot. Just pop it into the final home and really happy with the result. Previous to this I'd do the transplanting at 14ish days when the roots had developed enough to hold the soil together when popped out of the seedling pot but clumsy fingers and or soil not dried enough would inevitably lead to some damage.
 
I've transplanted hundreds of autos with a 99% sucess ratio. The key is timing and a container that the rootball will easily slide out of. Many on the commercial pots suck, dirt and root stick to the sides. The good quality, round, commercial pots are good, best is yogurt or cottage cheese containers. The plastic is soft and the rootball slips out . I water the plant and wait 5 minutes or so, until the water is absorbed thoroughly. slip the plant between your fingers and flip the pot upside down. With the soft containers, press the bottom like it was a button, to start the rootball moving. Lift the pot off the rootball. Move the plant to its new home! Never transplant a dry pot.

An observation I've made and confirmed is, in a container of 24 to 32oz. a sprouted plant will have a canopy as wide as the container, when the roots first touch bottom, usually 7-10 days. You transplant RIGHT THEN, while there is no, to minimal circling. I guarantee that, if you don't break the rootball more than minimally, you'll see growth in 12-24 hours. No stalling, no stunting.
 
Transplanting may stunt your growth but how would you ever know? Just because they don't die does not mean it was fully successful. I simply do not have enough farm space to do a truly scientific cannabis test. Extrapolating my 40+ years experiences with growing organic vegetables and cutting flowers I can state that any kind of transplanting reduces yields compared to seeds planted directly into the garden. Seeds started in greenhouses to get a jump on spring just do not produce as well. I am sure there are other factors besides "transplanting" working here. The question is this: why can't you just plant the seed in the container it will spend its whole life in? I do. My current grow is an exception to that practice as I have never grown in rockwool blocks so I followed GroDan's directions to the letter. The transplanting process is very root friendly but still is a transplant operation. I had 100% germination success with their method. Once again a pretty small sample to mean much. I am very happy with the Hugo blocks and the huge nutrient savings with the drip irrigation system ~ 70% over DWC.
 
Back
Top