ommamedmar

I picked up some 30 gallon pots today; *sigh* I had to move Mary out of the greenhouse (see attached thread) since she has at least two months of veg. and she was poking the roof!

http://www.hempcultivation.com/420/s...threadid=23860

This sativa-dominant strain is presenting some new challenges and forcing me to make some decisions; is the 5 gallon pot too small? I would venture a guess and say "yes".

How do you transplant something this big while minimizing damage to the colas?

Lil'buddie; you have root trimmed mothers before, is this approach good for transplanting or for a plant that is heading towards flowering?

3hounds; your haze is a tall one; do you plant it directly in to the ground?

Organic; any input on conditioning large volumes of clay soil with compost and peat moss would be appreciated. Large volumes of potting soil will be difficult to transport at this point.

thanks in advance.

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~~ Dr. John Lilly

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~~Frank Zappa

PipeWorks

You'd have to be pretty gentle, but I would say dig a hole and stick it in the ground. If you don't need that 5 gallon pot, just cut it down 2 sides with a razor blade, careful! And then carefully place the dirt and all in the hole, but sure you water the plant good so it stays together for the most part.

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choader

Don't know if this is true for sativa or not. However, with a normal garden plant, if the roots look bound after it's out of the container, you can *carefully* spread them apart alittle when you put it in the ground. This will help the roots spread. I just loosen the roots around the edge of the container.

Hope this helps.

The Choader

Resin_king

Well Im in the same boat as you and here is what I came up with.Just saw off the bottom of the bucket with a saw. Then you could push the soil/roots out from the bottom whlye some help holds the tree.Then just set it in your new dirt filled bucket. It looks like thats thin plastic so you might just want to slice the plastic vertical and then cut the bottom off and peel the pot off. Try someones method and post back and let me know as I want to see what works best.

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3hounds

They're pretty tough.
Just lay the whole thing down on it's side and slide the pot off. If it is root bound, just use your fingers to work them loose a bit before you replant it. If it is terribly root bound, you can saw off the bottom inch or two of the whole root ball, soil and all. Alternatively, you can also score down the sides and bottom of the rootmass with a sharp utility knife.
The more cutting of roots you do, the longer you will need to keep it shaded afterwards. If shade in it's new destination is not an option, try to minimize the cutting of too many roots.
If you are putting it in clay soil from the ground, add plenty of ammendments.. compost, peat moss, sand, earthworm castings, bat guano would be good.. even wood chips and a bag of perlite.
My sativas stay in 5 gal until they are sexed, then they go in the ground.
And FWIW, I recently transplanted a huge desert rose into a 30 gallon pot all by myself- I swear it weighs 200 lbs. I kicked and pulled and rolled that thing around for an hour before I got it pulled out of the old pot. I had to sit on the ground with my feet pushing the pot and me pulling the plant- harder than childbirth! After that I proceeded to trim the roots drastically, and I mean a lot. It never missed a beat and is very happy in it's new digs. They're not delicate.

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ommamedmar

I used an amalgamation of all your suggestions, and came up with the following:

Cut pot and had assistant lift root ball; did not water beforehand, so weight was minimal; stayed intact.

Conditioned soil with composted clay-grey water mix and set depth to match root ball.

Upon examination of root ball, determined spreading roots unnecessary, so proceeded to drop plant in to 30 gallon container with soil mix.

Filled in space with slightly acidic forest duff and topped with vermiculite-potting soil mix. Added inverted 2 liter pop bottle to facilitate deep watering, and voila! Done.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
"In the province of connected minds, what the network believes to be true, either is true or becomes true within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the network's mind there are no limits."
~~ Dr. John Lilly

"...Like some tacky little pamphlet in your daddy's bottom drawer."
~~Frank Zappa

Resin_king

Nice plant you got. Glad ta hear it was sucessfull. Is that a trashcan you transplanted into? Im lookin for big containers.

__________________
When You're below me, I'm God. When you're above me, I'm Satan. When you're in front of me, I'm you--Icemane

superOz

Please ...............listen to 3 Hounds............put in in the soil in the ground..................dig a hole 4 x 4 feet and 4 feet down with all the slow release nutes ............in the sun................
What hours of light do you have and are they still going increasing ?.............. The difference is huge ........in the ground can produce up to 50 bags of smoko if looked after................sorry i didn't see the thread earlier..........
regards superOz

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lilbuddie

I gotta agree ... if the plant stays outside all the time and doesnt get moved around at all then stick that puppy in the ground!! But a pot is great if you need to move it around to hide, force flower, etc.... and that is one BIG pot!!!!

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ommamedmar

Thanks guys; ummm...yeah. There's contingencies within contingincies here; perhaps excessive, but "the cage" is a contingency for greenhouse growth gone awry, or against prying eyes- the 30 gallon buckets are, as lb mentioned, a contingency against further unwanted changes in the grow environment; low light, security breach, etc.

I'm curious though; the next round of clones are going strait in to soil; as soon as I find out how to motivate myself in to digging a 4' by 4' hole!

__________________
"In the province of connected minds, what the network believes to be true, either is true or becomes true within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the network's mind there are no limits."
~~ Dr. John Lilly

"...Like some tacky little pamphlet in your daddy's bottom drawer."
~~Frank Zappa