Transplant

[Pick]

Hello everyone, So I’m getting ready to transplant, should I make transplant keeping entire root ball with soil or shake off old soil ??

[Canuck147]

Be nice to your roots.

[Rwise]

Unless there is a soil/root issue, dont disturb the roots

[Pick]

Okay thanks guys 👍

[FunkyButtLovin]

Be as gentle as you can, I'm about to transplant an auto seedling from a solo cup to 2 gallon pot right now. I could take pictures of the process and post them for you in about 20 minutes if you'd like?

[Pick]

Yes if you can do that,, great

[FunkyButtLovin]

Ok, I saved it for you. When I finish eating I'll go get it done and take a few pics for you along the way. Look for an update soon.

[SoOrbudgal]

Whatcha eating FunkyButtLovin ? I just ate Thai food.

[FunkyButtLovin]

My wife made sour cream chicken enchilada casserole for the first time, it was pretty good. Thai sounds great too, I love the heat. I really just love food I think lol.
I just finished up and am uploading the pics. I hope it will let me upload them, there are a bunch!

[FunkyButtLovin]

Ok here we go, I hope this works and lets me post all the pics. We're going to transplant this little Strawberry Cheesecake autoflower from a solo cup to a 2 gallon using Happy Frog and Ocean Forest soil.

Here's the lady that is looking for a new home. Note how shallow the soil level is in this one so that we can match it later when prepping the new pot.


First I add soil to the bottom of the pot and give it a light pack then set the cup on top. Add or subtract the amount needed to get the lip of the cup about even with the top of the new pot. In this case, I ran out of Happy Frog at this point and switched to Ocean Forest since I had an open bag handy. It took one more cupful after this photo to get me where I wanted.


I then replace the plant with an empty cup and center it in the pot. In the picture it looks like I'm about to dump the soil but first I hold the cup firmly as I pour it in so the incoming soil does not disturb the centering. The fourth picture shows how I would be holding the cup as I dump/dig in bag/dump/dig/dump.


This is how I would have been holding the cup in place the whole time. I fill in around the cup while holding it until I get the level to the approximate level of the soil in the cup with plant.


Now I pack the soil moderately with the back of my knuckles like a gorilla. Keep holding the cup while doing this so you don't disturb your centering! I'm only doing these things one handed because I'm trying to show what I'm doing while taking pics.


This is what it looked like when I had the new pot prep finished.


Here are the cheap scissors I use and the starting cuts I make to the cup up and down on both sides about halfway across from each other to split the cup vertically.


Hold the cup with the hand that you're not using to take the picture with and carefully tear down one side of the cup until you get one side from top to bottom.



Now carefully tear down the other side then fold one side open and it should look something like this.


Carefully spin and pull the cup straight up and out of the soil leaving a hole that looks like you removed a plug of soil.


Now I use my fingers to get under the bottom edge that is exposed by folding back the cup and carefully slip them up and under the root ball as lift it out of the cup.




Next I gently glide the root ball right into the perfectly snug hole we made earlier.



I added more soil until I was just above where the cup was and watered it in, this time with about 20oz. of 6.5 pH water. It won't let me post that pic, exceeded the number of attachments but it's pretty basic, just adding water.

All done!!!

[WizardsNThings]

Do you see any differences using a mix of those two soils? I always use FFOF and have seen the Happy Frog and Strawberry Fields but never bothered to change what was working.

[FunkyButtLovin]

The only differences I can tell are that Ocean Forest has about 5% more perlite and seems like it might be a tad hotter. I usually use Happy Frog for seedlings and potting clones then make a mixture of the 2 when I transplant to big pots. Either one works great the whole way though.

[Pick]

Wow brother,, very good info,, thank you so much👍

[Rwise]

Nice indeed! I plant mine deeper at transplants, all the way up to the limbs, and sometimes up 6 limbs get buried. Everything covered will make roots,,, I luv it when the branches compete with the main top for the biggest bud!

[Pick]

Dame,, I figured that would kill them,, good tip👍

[Rwise]

A couple of photos,,,