I’ve been hooked on living soil the past couple of years and just reusing and re-ammending with EWC and organic dry amendments. I’ve been growing in 5 gallon fabric pots. I want to start running multiple strains at once, but only have a 4x4 so my space is limited. Was thinking about trying 2-3 gallon buts but I’ve always heard with living soil you should use 5-10 gallon pots to avoid any issues or deficiencies. Any suggestions?
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I am on my fourth run of recycled living soil, and in that time I’ve gone from #5 Pro Gro nursery pots, to 5g smart pots, to 7g smart pots. I think seven gallons in a cloth pot is pretty ideal, which was the advice from my local grow shop guy, who’s an old greenhouse orchardist. His take on it was that you want to have enough soil mass to let there be distinct 2-3 day wet/dry cycles and enough height to make a water table for the roots. Seems pretty correct IME. I’m in a 4x4 and run 4-6 plants in the 7g, six is too many 
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If you flip earlier would the plants not be smaller and require a smaller container?
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I have been using 7gal smart pouches for a number of years now. I would consider them to be the smallest I would use and my plants get flipped the day they go into the 7gals.
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Ive done 1gal pots of good soil with worms for pheno hunting. Smaller pots just means you have to deal with them more. Bigger pots make it way easier.
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The size required is all about keeping the stasis. If you can keep up with it you can keep living soil in smaller than 5 gal, but really it’s the smallest you see. I’ve ran 3 and 5 gal pots of semi-living soil. It’s all about watering; and I couldn’t keep the 3 gallon watered well enough. But at that size, even 5 gallons, I don’t know that you can really sustain a living soil full with worms and all.
So, my question would be what parts are you wanting from living soil? That’ll determine how small you can go. I ran my living soil in 1 gal pots for transplants, they work just ok but I wouldn’t count on any worms living for sure and I wouldn’t flower.
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10 liter, flip to flower when the plant is about the same size as the pot.
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I buy 50 count of thick plastic white grow bags and put them into 5 gallon buckets with a hole at the bottom with a hose to drain excesses water.
4x 4 tent scrog easy 12 plants could be a sog as well …
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In my experience, a five gallon is the smallest I would go with a living soil. Any smaller and I need to supplement with KNF inputs.
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don’t waste your time.
would also recommend hard pots. fabric dries pretty fast. okay in veg, but… (I’ve used 2, 3, 5 and 7)
10 gallon hard squares would be my vote.
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ive got friends that install water softeners. They can get me round brine tanks anytime i want. I have one cleaned out with a bunch of holes i drilled. It can probably hold 15 gallons of soil.
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What’s the height and diameter of brine tank?
Cheers
G
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I’ve often wondered this before, glad to see someone else asking. I’m currently doing my seed run in 3 gal pots, to see if I can manage with top dresses while supplementing with kelp extracts and fish hydrolysate. Interested to hear everyone’s opinions on the size debate though.
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If you could stand there and give compost tea and spoon worm castings all day while the lights were on, 18oz would.be a generous container. It’s really about how often you need to replenish water, nutrients, and O2 in the root zone. I’ve done 5g fabric pots that I fussed over constantly. Having to water once or twice a day didn’t feel more efficient or easier than just regular drain to waste soilless style.
If you really underdrove your lighting, you could also get away with fewer waterings for a given container size.
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I finish pure sativas in 2-3 gallon living soil with some dry food spikes or layered on the floor of the container. Just grew oaxaca to finish in a one gallon with no amending.
I think the trick is to transplant frequently. If you give the plants the 2-3 gallon container too early the food gets used up too quick. Better to keep them in smaller containers until flowering for this to work. I’ve had great luck this way. No deficiencies except occasinally nitrogen. An easy fix.
Hybrids may need more.
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key words here: pure sativa 
I like over-vegging a small fabric pot with Alaska/Neptune/etc, then transplanting to big flower pots, or outdoor containers.
I too am a fan of understatement 
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After a couple years with 7 gal hard plastic, I am stepping back down to 5 gal plastic this season. What I found for my purposes of space and time, I think a little smaller, a little quicker, and more plants. Been musing about veg time/plant size/growth rate lately. When I grow outdoors, my pots are jammed full of roots, you can lift a whole 25 gallon rootball out without spilling much soil. I have never seen an indoor plant which had been transplanted just before bloom, approach this kind of root density before chop in the surrounding new soil, I can always just pull the original 1-2 gal transplant ball right out with very little large strong roots in the new media. So I have figured that the last transplant has to be done at least a week before flip. Preferrably 2 weeks. I uppot 2-3 times before final cup - 1/2 gal- 1 gal. But there must be better timing/ transplant regimen than my existing “see roots out holes= transplant time” to maximize root growth without wasting that 3-4 gallons of partially used blooming soil.
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Ive done 3 gal fabric without issues. Plants were like 12-18” when flipped. Watering once every two days. Its a good size for phenohunting smaller plants, seed runs, etc.
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That’s why I like the air trimming pots. You will see roots out the bottom before it’s truly filled the pot- all the water goes the the bottom of the pot with gravity so roots grow there most… Sorry, my only advice is air trimming or maybe even try root trimming to fill out the pots pre-transplant more.
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