Post first grow analysis. Is it that easy?

[bobthedog]

I've grown a lot of things, but never pot in pots, so I really didn't know what to expect. Despite a lackadaisical (polite word for lazy) effort, I actually had decent results.

The grow area:

The grow was random auto feminized seeds in 3 gallon plastic pots. Started with 8 seeds in 3 inch , but got 50% germination because I let things dry out. Used a heat mat for the first time and did not appreciate how much that can dry out. I then over watered trying to get back to proper moisture levels and lost two plants to damping off.

Potted with some random potting mix of what looks like just perlite and peat amended with some triple 15 tomato fert. and watered. I rotated the pots every couple of days to even out the light each side got, but these autos grew neither large nor dense, so every branch got good light.

I watched for signs of bugs and nutrient deficiencies, but the leaves were always a deep green. There was never a sign of any bugs. The only bug issue in the entire garden was one round of cabbage worms on the kale.

I got 20 grams on the first chop of the top plant in the pic above and will probably get another 15 to 20 grams from the final chop.

That's not particularly impressive, but not bad for a "stick 'em in soil and watch 'em grow" approach.

Dead easy actually.

Now, I think being on the third floor probably helped with disease and bugs. Being that high up there is always good air flow, so no worry with fungal infections and I suspect its high up enough that not many bugs wander up my way.

 

[St. Tom]

Well done Bob and Nice to meet you from the UK

 

[bobthedog]

Shucks fellas, thanks for all the likes.

Tom. Thanks for the welcome. I'm not sure I deserve a well done because I really didn't do anything.

In fact, I think I'm going to write up another post on exactly why I really didn't have to do anything. I think folks completely new to growing over complicate things.

 

[bobthedog]

I've been wanting to look at the roots on these plants, so today I picked up a couple of bins to store the potting mix for next year and got a good look.

I don't get why people like jiffy pots. They may be biodegradable, but they really don't break down very fast. They didn't work very well in the lat '70s when we trialed them for our greenhouse and they still don't work now. The only reason I used them was because that is what the guy with the seeds gave me.

Though I already suspected it, I now know why these plants were so small and never needed any extra nutrients during flower.

The green line in the root picture is 2" the size of the pot. These plants were in 10" diameter pots, about 4 gallons in size. You can see how small the root mass is in relation to the growing area and can clearly see that the plant had a hard time getting its roots through the jiffy pot. There was no tap root outside the jiffy pot.

The second picture shows how little root got to the bottom and edges of the grow pot.