I’m going to take a different approach. You have a very adequate light, so your plants can get much bigger until you flip. They will become root bound if you keep all three or just a single plant per pot and when bound they will stop getting larger. When they do I would flip then.
Alternatively (if they are not autos) you could remove the 3/pot plants out of the planters. Using a long knife cut pizza slices through the root ball of the three plants and separate and repot into 5 gal pots. The root damage will be minimal and will grow back. Roots are not as fragile as ppl make them out to be.
Your tent is just way too small for all of these plants. 2x2/Plant next time.
you really need to make a decision what you plan on doing with your plants… Whether or not you’re going to repot them or keep them as they are. You don’t want to defoliate and be transplanting all at the same time. #stress
@GreenCoat Ahhh, have you seen the BDSM tricks these plants can do? bent over, broken, plucked, defoliate and beheaded. They can take a bit of pain without harm.
@richyb Take your time to learn on your first grow even if it’s suboptimal. Don’t be rushed. I would suggest getting a cheap pH and TDS meter to monitor your progress. Your nutes won’t be pH perfect.
I defoliated 2 plants today. I’m not going to repot. I’m just sending them into flower. Taking the lights from 20/4 - 12/12 by 2s every Other day. When I get to 12 I’ll switch bulb also. Next grow I’m going autoflower.
You are in 8 weeks. Have you been just watering or have you been feeding your plants as well? Ultimately you want to have your plants as big if not bigger than the pot they are growing in before you flip. During flower the plants may double in size. Given your limited space you will have to accommodate for the sizes. With your HPS light you should be generating heat? Do you have adequate ventilation? What are your temps? Again, you really need to get a pH and TDS meter. Get the highly rated ones off Amazon. Think I paid $11 for each of them. There are others that are more expensive, that may last longer, but this is your first grow, you can upgrade later. You really need to get a handle on what is going on in the soil PH and PPM and get thes babies to flourish.
My last set of autos took 22wks. 11weeks waiting for the start of flower. My photos were done in 4 months. They did grow into monsters, but just had no control over when they flipped.
DWC’s are all roots. More roots bigger plants. So I don’t disagree with the premises above, but his plants could get much bigger before flip consideing his canopies still have not even gotten as big as his pot even looking at the 3 as 1 plant.
Yeah I’m definitely not trying to be right or wrong here… I’m just saying that if he’s sick of being in vegetation after 8 weeks then he should flip to flower and move on.
If he wants to go longer than that’s fine but I got the impression that he was sick of waiting for his plants to grow any bigger than what they are.
For him to transplant and split up the plants is great experience also. So either way I think it’s fine.
it just depends on what he really wants to do
And as for him wanting to try growing Autos, why not get the experience by having a go.
If I was in his shoes. I would flip, get the grow done then move on and learn from my mistakes about putting three plants in one pot.
2 TASTY MIX PACK AUTOS
