Transplanting Autos Causes Stress. Myth?

[pop22]

When you see growth within hours of transplant, you know. It means the plants has sensed it has more room to send out root. If it was shocked it would and does, stop growing. I personally think that the worst way to transplants autos is the "tier" method. First, most cannabis only has a taproot a couple inches long, the rest is regular food and water gathering roots. Second, you want your roots to spread out, width matters more than depth. Forcing all the roots out through a 3" diameter opening is restrictive.
And maybe my documentation wouldn't measure up to scientific standards, but, I've done comparison experiments with seed and clone plants, transplanted, and started in the final pot, all at the same time. I've found that transplants will equal the one pot plants 85% of the time, 10% exceeding the one pot plant, and 5% with slightly less growth, usually only in plants that I damaged the rootball of in transplant. My observations were not casual, I spent months studying this.

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.

 

[Muddy]

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.

The grow I referenced here is now finishing up. The plants that I transplanted are much bigger than the ones started directly in the 3 gallon pots. Those topped out at about 20" tall. Three of the transplants hit 24" and one is the biggest indoor auto I've ever grown at 30". Since they are different strains it isn't a true comparison but next grow I'm tempted so run some of the same fem seeds and start them in the juice containers to see if it does make a difference.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

The biggest problem is sample size; even 100 plants is not a very big sample size statistically. I have had as many as 3 different phenotypes with four seeds of the same cannabis strain and they all grew different looking and size plants. That is why I referred to my outdoor/greenhouse vegetable and flower experiences where I have grown tens of hundreds of the same plants. Even at that there was nothing scientific about the observation. We just knew to expect better performance from field planted seed.

 

[Muddy]

The biggest problem is sample size; even 100 plants is not a very big sample size statistically. I have had as many as 3 different phenotypes with four seeds of the same cannabis strain and they all grew different looking and size plants. That is why I referred to my outdoor/greenhouse vegetable and flower experiences where I have grown tens of hundreds of the same plants. Even at that there was nothing scientific about the observation. We just knew to expect better performance from field planted seed.

Trust me, I realize that isn't a big enough sample to form a definitive opinion one way or another, especially given they were different strains. But it's something I plan to pay further attention to in the future.

 

[pop22]

I start my plants in smaller pots as its the only way to be ready for the next grow, no room for extra pots that are large. Comparing outdoor/greenhouse seedlings to indoor isn't really valid either, as you have uncontrolled environmental conditions to factor in. Also too vague, Im not convinced what you say can be applied to all vegetables or flowers, just as there may be some strains of cannabis that may not be as easily transplanted.

My experiments convince me that, if I adhered to strict scientific protocol, my results would be the same. And Cannabis is no ordinary plant... the worse you beat them up, the bigger they grow.....lol!

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.

 

[G.Leave]

When you see growth within hours of transplant, you know. It means the plants has sensed it has more room to send out root. If it was shocked it would and does, stop growing. I personally think that the worst way to transplants autos is the "tier" method. First, most cannabis only has a taproot a couple inches long, the rest is regular food and water gathering roots. Second, you want your roots to spread out, width matters more than depth. Forcing all the roots out through a 3" diameter opening is restrictive.
And maybe my documentation wouldn't measure up to scientific standards, but, I've done comparison experiments with seed and clone plants, transplanted, and started in the final pot, all at the same time. I've found that transplants will equal the one pot plants 85% of the time, 10% exceeding the one pot plant, and 5% with slightly less growth, usually only in plants that I damaged the rootball of in transplant. My observations were not casual, I spent months studying this.

This is where i swear by the instatransplant pots. I find it gets the best of both worlds!!

 

[DreadHeadiez]

This is where i swear by the instatransplant pots. I find it gets the best of both worlds!!
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Badass

 

[pop22]

Interesting!

This is where i swear by the instatransplant pots. I find it gets the best of both worlds!!
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[Clix]

So what size pot do you all start your auto's in? and at what point to you pot up?

 

[G.Leave]

So what size pot do you all start your auto's in? and at what point to you pot up?

I run mine is 6" diameter round for 20-30 days before in the ground transplants happen. From my winter experiments with solo cups i found 5-8 days is perfect.