I really don’t know as it is something I have rarely felt since my early lightweight days lol
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Thanks so much for the response 
had one more question for you as well, I know you had said you transplant into your mix. Do you feed them anything before transplanting or do you germinate them in that mix as well and just pot up to your 7 gallons?
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My first pot ( the one the seed gets planted in ) is just plain promix.
They get transplanted into the second pot ( 1 gal ) when the feeder leaves on the seedlings start to fade. The 1 gal pots are filled with a mix of the same mix that is in the 7 gal and some used soil from a used 7gal at a mix of anywhere from 1/3 used 2/3 new to 50/50 .
Once the seed plants have sexed in the 1gal pots they got into the 7gal and are flipped. Usually the 1 gal pots hold enough food to get them to sexing. Sometimes they don’t . When they don’t, I have a bottle of Neptunes harvest to get them through.
All that being said when it comes to premix soil I believe even more in the bigger the finishing pot the better. I am actually considering moving up to 10 gal. My finishing pot is the only size of fabric pot I use. I prefer the plastic pots before then as they are much easier for transplanting.
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This is exactly how I do it, too, except I use half-gallon pots for the first up-pot instead of one gallon pots like you use. I’ve been considering switching to one gallon pots, though. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, greenhighlander, but it seems like the roots don’t do much growing when I transplant from the half-gallon pots into my seven gallon airpots, even though I veg them for two weeks in those before flip. Whenever I chop and remove the soil from the seven gallons to recycle, it always seems like the root ball is about the same size as it was when I transplanted (basically the size of the half-gallon pot they were in). Have you noticed anything similar? I figure if I switch to one gallon pots for their veg, they’ll at least have more roots when I transplant into the seven gallon pots.
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Are you just sexing your plants by watching your preflowers while still in veg? And when you say 1 gallon pot, do you mean a true 1 gallon or those trade gallon nursery pots that are like black and 6.5 inches diameter?
Edit, typos
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I find that this is somewhat pheno-specific, but also that it indicates they were in the half gallon too long. Staying in a plastic pot until rootbound tends to inhibit root expansion, in my experience. I like to keep the pedal to the metal when possible.
If I transplant just as the roots start to read the edges of the half gal, about 2-3 weeks from the day they’re put in there, I find they more fully fill the 7gal and you’ll get better soil utilization from that 7gal. If I wait until they’re rootbound, they do less rooting in the 2wks of veg in the 7gal. Increasing to 1gal might buy you an extra week, at most.
This does create issues if you don’t recycle your soil, since you have some that won’t sex until they’ve been in the 7gal for awhile, sometimes even until 2wks after flip. Personally I don’t care, but I know it bothers some people.
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Come harvest my plant root mass is way larger then the 1gal pots. Very rarely is the 7gal pot not just an air pruned root mass. That is one of the reasons I am looking at moving to 10gal. Now one thing I might do that you do not is , when transplanting from the 1gal , which is also usually a solid root mass by then , I actually tear the root mass twice across on the bottom with my hands before transplanting. That encourages new root growth much faster then leaving it a solid mass. I learned that trick from non weed farming.
My 7gal are as full of roots by harvest as can be and that is without any veg in them.
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Yes I have found most strains will show fairly easily with pre flowers. I have had a few that just do not want to show until flipped , but they are rare.
I believe they are nursery 1gal and not a true 1 gal. They are honestly just a hodge podge of pots I have gotten other things in and I have a whole bunch of square ones that I got from a farmer I know . They don’t hold quite as much as the round ones.
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I was actually going to suggest the same thing. Lots of people have luck with scratching up the bottoms of the root ball when transplanting. Especially coming out of smaller containers where they may have been rootbound, I can see where aggravating and opening up that rootball at the bottom would produce a response to heal which means growth.
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Absolutely. I can say what I do is much more then scratching the surface. I literally tear pretty much the whole root mass twice across.
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That’s probably exactly what’s going on with my plants. I only leave them in there for about two weeks, but it’s always just a massive rootball when I transplant. Definitely root bound for sure. Maybe I’ll only leave them in there ten days from now on.
@anon60559124 Yeah, I’m aware of the scratching method. I even did it once or twice, but then I read somewhere that it was “bad.” I dunno where I read that or why I even trusted something I was reading on what was most likely some moronic weed-growing site. But I quit scratching after I read that.
About how long does it take for your plants to fill the one gallon containers before they’re ready for transplanting? I think I’m gonna buy some one gallon pots now.
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I have no idea what the scratching method is but it sounds as lame as claiming it is bad to tear root balls up lol
I also have no idea how long it takes for my 1gal pots to fill with roots. Maybe 4 weeks. Probably less. I rarely pay precise attention to such minor details man . I run the laziest KISS system possible and a huge part of that is not stressing over unimportant things.
Leaving a rootbound plant rootbound is essentially what not tearing up the roots does.
I save my gentle handling for post harvest lol
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Thanks @anon60559124 I’m gonna be trying this soon. I don’t have the previous soil to mix in so I’m assuming I will need to pick up something like neptune as well to carry me through as i will need extra time for the nutes to break down l would assume.
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No there is no need for time with what I do . None of my mix soil cooks . I mix it fill a pot and plant in it. Fresh mixed soil is better . I only reuse any to try to get more of a bang for my buck. I don’t use any reused soil in my finishing pots.
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You have been an incredible wealth of information. Thanks very much. I yearn to grow the highest quality medicine I can. I’m fully organic for all my food production on my homestead but for some reason indoors always am on the bottle. Thanks for helping me take that next step to be able to produce a healthier product.
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Glad to be of help
If you grow your food that way , as I do , then I am sure you have also noticed the difference in quality over the factory farmed trash in the grocery store. I assure you you will see the same quality difference with your weed. In all honesty though I would like to move to a more self sustainable method with my weed like I do with my food . Thats one of the reasons I finally made weed seeds like I do with my food.
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We produce a lot of food on our homestead and a lot of times we could purchase certain items for cheaper but their cheaper for a reason (they have no nutrients and therefor have a low brix and taste poor) sadly very few people know how good properly grown food actually tastes. This is why reading your journal intrigued me so much because I jumped to an assumption hoping the change in quality would be the same with my cannabis.
Our goal with food production is nutrient density and when you grow really healthy plants from really healthy soil their extra nutricious and are extra tasty, I cant even buy tomatoes from the grocery store anymore as they taste so bad by comparison.
Sustainability always seems a lot easier outdoors with nature being the balancing act, but when that is brought indoors the buffer is gone and the headache begins I couldn’t imagine utilizing my composted cattle or chicken manure indoors as I do outdoors but it sure would be nice.
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I personally view the extra tasty as being extra nutrient rich for the soil and veggies . I am convinced of the same for weed. The weed regardless of strain that I grow this way is far more full spectrum then they other way.
This has actually be proven in studies with vegetables and their nutritious value.
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I use rabbit pellets in my indoor super soil. It’s been doing well thus far.
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