@OldUncleBen you ever use perlite wicking beds for plastic or fabric pots? I’m thinking to give that a spin this time around with some trays for my potted plants outdoors, thinking a white plastic cover over the tray with holes cut out for the pots, to keep the perlite clean and from blowing away when it dries down.
When I say it’s all about the roots, I mean it. I’ve concentrated on root development for decades and have mastered it. Case in point, i have a key lime tree which has 4 varieties of oranges grafted on it and one Moro blood orange tree. Like all my “in ground” greenhouse trees, the roots are thick. I got 223 Meyer lemons over the last few months and am still working on 100’s of oranges.
Here is a shot of me adding three 13" W X 16" panels to my RootBuilder pot. To expand the “pot”, you cut the old cable ties holding the ends together and add the new panels with new cable ties, backfill with soil. Notice there is little to no spin out. The root tip termination is due to exposure to light/air via the downward pointing “nipples” extruded into the material. There are 1/4" holes in the nipples. If you look at the bottom left you can see thick white roots rooted into my heavy clay loam. 2014:
Griffin’s Spin-Out on cannabis, Scratched some of the soil off with my finger. Note no spin out.
Fibrous root ball.
UB
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No I haven’t. Sure you’re not overthinking this @Dirt_Wizard?
The easiest way for me to grow outdoors is to dig a 3" deep hole the perimeter size of the pot and sink the pot into the hole. Make sure the drainholes are well covered. I run a drip irrigation emitter into the pot, like a 1 gpm, which is what I fed a field of trees with, 2 miles of 1/2" black poly pipe. The roots will grow through the drain holes into native soil. Easy peasy…
I’ve grown some pretty big sativas this way - O. Haze, a very sativa dominant Peak19 backcross (Colombia parent influence), etc.
In spite of staking the colas flopped over.
UB
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Dumped another male. This time MicroKote worked for some strange reason. Maybe I painted this pot a bit more @Oldjoints. Again, the rootmass is extremely thick, so thick it’s hard to beat the soil out of the roots.
UB
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Here’s a trick, pure indica, Tom Hill’s Monkey Balls. This is another indica that’s a bear to pinpoint when to harvest. Took this shot this morn - it is covered with a very fruity, bubble gum smelling resin albeit no long pistils to speak of and you’d have to have a 1,000X microscope to see inside the trichomes. 
Been in 12/12 for 7 weeks. Think I’m going to do the chop this weekend.
The shaded buds are not thin and are covered with resin.
UB
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Harvested the gummy Monkey Balls yesterday. This thing was like trimming something covered in goo. I noticed the black “charas” on the scissors and thought of those villagers that rub plants out all day with their fingers to make it. Had to clean the scissors often.
Even the lower colas were thick and chunky.
Plant got rain water the last week or so. Probably pulled a dozen yellowed fan leaves recently.
Still had a lot of nice lower leaves. Was thinking about re-vegging this. Gonna take a break for a while. Grow “room” is broken down.
Best,
Uncle Ben
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I did re-veg the Lapis Mtn. indica. It’s going on about 6 weeks 12/12. Color of the leaves is a hoot!
Uncle Ben
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The coating worked well. Root mass is thick and healthy. No spin out.
Knocked off as much soil as possible to show the root mass.
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This is amazing info. I’m in need of all the help I can get so I just ordered a quart. I’ve just gotta get the soil mixed and pots painted. I’m psyched
TY @OldUncleBen
Good luck with that. I just got thru harvesting the re-veg of Lapis mtn. indica in such a treated pot. It did well being in that pot for about 6 months with a very dense healthy root system. Need to post a pic.
Got a lot of gooey, fine nuggets BTW. Am curing it now.
Uncle Ben
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Here’s some pix of that re-vegged. This lady has been in this pot for at least 6 months. Root system and plant were very healthy. The X worked this time.
Uncle Ben
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Been very busy but had to say thanks for this technique. It’s been extremely helpful in a way I don’t think I expected.
I have comments and questions
Makes up potting a breeze for my system.
I typically place the root bound seedling in its new home and pack all around the solo cup with new soil until I get it set height wise. (Currently all went into pre painted one gallon nursery pots)
I then remove the seedling/cup and spray the soil (the hole and perimeter with rooting liquid hormones)
The magic happens when I remove the seedling.
I also spray the root ball with rooting liquid before sprinkling it with micorrizae. This process often led to a bit of crumbling or soil loss AND it would often be impossible to get micorrizae to adhere to the perimeter of the root ball.
Not anymore!!!
I can rotate the seedling in one hand and gently shake the micorrizae onto the root ball with confidence it won’t crumble in hand.
I then place it in its new pot, tamp soil, water well, and on to the next.
Huge anxiety reliever.
My questions/observations might be stupid or wrong.
I noticed the plants needed watering more often and it seemed I had to take a longer slower approach to watering.
I guessed it was due to the massive root system and very little air space in the soil (which alerted me “time to up pot”)
Did I get this wrong?
I even painted my solo cups so I lost the visual cues of seedlings being root bound.
Just hoping I missed this info here. It’s not like I spent hours researching this, I knew I was gonna do it.
Hoping this helps others that might also be lazy like me before starting a new technique, and hoping I figured it out accurately.
Thanks again @OldUncleBen
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Hyp3rids Long Island Haze at 4 weeks
Maybe a bit early on the move but close enough to handle it without crumbling
Had 20 to do so it was a big help
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@OldUncleBen how do you think that Microkote would work on some Bonsai Moms?Would there even be need for a 1/3 root trim with that Microkote trimming the root tips?
BTW i took your advice on the Defoliation….Sort of.I still clear some on the Bottom of the trunk for air space over the dirt surface but those are turned into clones anyway so they would have been cut regardless Will do the same for the UBC Chemo when they get going,I Dont take any leaves off and They seem to do a bit better(Romulan grows funny Not too bushy so i dont touch that one grows funny two branches) and not throw any fits so if it aint broke i aint fixing it ill stay on this track so thanks for the help.Hope your Family and Garden are well Many pleasant evenings to you Sir ……. - 
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It would work great. This thread will help. My gardening drills, the easy way....and a Help Desk if you're "needy" LOL. Questions? Fire away, I'm here to help. | International Cannagraphic Magazine Forums
Good luck!
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Hey @OldUncleBen . This is a great thread! The information about the alfalfa is very good too. I have alfalfa growing wild along the side of my hay field so this year I will make my own “slop”. 
I was curious about your old Mexican and Vietnamese seeds. Are they going to be preserved?
They are preserved.
Use horse nuggets, alfalfa cubes.
Good luck!
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