What's new
By:
GrowWeedEasy.com
You're browsing as a guest. Sign up to join the conversation, share your grows, and get help from thousands of fellow growers — it's free and takes less than a minute.

What's the best pot size for soil or coco?

E

eatyourhartout

New member
I wanted to hear all your thoughts on ideal pot size for indoor cannabis plants.

Here's what I've learned so far on growweedeasy.com and these forums. I'm still a beginner with just a few grows under my belt.

Small pots (2-3 gallons)
  • Plants stay smaller and grow slower vegetatively after leaves reach the edges of the pot.
  • Use very small pots like a 1-gallon or even smaller to keep plants mini, for space-limited growing
  • Can fit more plants in a space, and fill up a space faster in the vegetative stage
  • Can grow more strains at once with more plants, but more complexity since each plant may have different nutrient needs or harvest timing.
  • Water more often since pots don't hold much water, prone to under watering if plants get bigger than pots are meant for
  • More work and complication since you have more plants, and each one can be different
  • Less weed per plant since plants are smaller
Bigger pots (5-7+ gallons)
  • Plants can get much bigger
  • Fit fewer plants in a space
  • Can grow fewer strains at once
  • Simpler daily care, with fewer plants to care for, and less chance of complications between different strains
  • Takes longer to fill the space under the light. For example, 3 vegetative plants fill in the entire canopy slower than 8 plants. But that is mainly only a factor in the vegetative stage right at the beginning.
  • Water less often since pots hold a lot of water, but easier to overwater especially when plants are seedlings
  • Much bigger potential yields per plant
Auto-watering bases

I want to try these on my next grow. I've heard using auto-watering pot bases gives you bigger plants for the pot size, but since they take up a lot of room you can't fit more plants, losing some of the benefits. I'm not sure if there's much advantage to using small pots with auto-watering bases.

Total Yields

I've heard some growers say to go bigger with pot size to increase yields. With fewer but larger pots, you get bigger yields per plant. I've heard some growers say you also get bigger, denser buds.

Others suggest growing lots of plants in smaller pots to increase overall yields per harvest, ie "sea of green" style. With smaller pots you get less yields per plant, but potentially bigger yields for the space/light, and potentially faster harvests since it's quicker in the vegetative stage to fill up the space under the grow light.

Still others say that pot size doesn't matter to yields. It's more about your setup and grow light as far as potential yields, and whether you fill up the space under the light with bud sites before initiating budding with 12/12. "Coverage is king."

What about you? What pot size do you use for your indoor cannabis plants and why? Do you grow autos or photos?

Any other tips for a newbie?
 
Last edited:
Many growers with many ideas and ways of growing. I suggest you pick a style and stay with it till you get it mastered then adjust from there. And have patience, jumping all over the place will most likely cause you grief. Your grow tent size will be a factor for sure. With that being said, I mostly use 3 gal fab or air pots for my autos and 5 gal for my photo period grows. Since autos grow fast, I like the 3 gal so the roots get established quick and then the foliage can get busy with it! I am currently trying my first small pot auto grow just for fun. Growing in an estimated 1-1.5 gal DIY air pot. In my opinion growing in small pots should just be for fun! And a flat canopy is King no matter how you get there. In my opinion a 7gal is a little large especially not knowing what your tent size is. That's enough typing points for me! All the verbiage makes me tired!
 
That is one of those questions where you ask 100 people, get 100 different answers. It all depends on the details of your grow setup and what you are trying to achieve. I have used between 5 gallon plastic to solo cups. What I settled on is 3 gallon fabric. Four plants in a 5x5 tent. The plants fill the tent, so why go bigger? Smaller pots = less moisture in the tent = lower risk of bud rot and healthier plants. I started using a semi-auto bottom watering system and found it worked well. My first indoor grow I used 1 gallon windshield wash bottles with the top cut off and holes in the bottom. When I first started, not knowing what I was doing, I tried everything then chose what worked the next year. Maye not the best way to do it, but it worked for me. Get the basics down first, then fine tune the grow.
 
Ckbrew said:
The plants fill the tent, so why go bigger? Smaller pots = less moisture in the tent = lower risk of bud rot and healthier plants.
Click to expand...

That actually makes a lot of sense to me. I struggle with humidity and just less water evaporating into the tent seems better as far as I'm concerned.
 
chipmunk and ckbrew say it best.many paths one destination …for beginners I would recommend 5 gal bags and photos gives you plenty of room for the plant to grow out,up and root development.I’ve tried 2,3,5,7 10,12,15 and 30 gallon pots. The 10-30 for outdoor 5-7 for indoor photo.. 2,3 and 5 usually autos.5 goes either for indoor photo or auto… my 10 cents worth.my last indoor grow I used3 gallon on photo in a 4x4 with 450 led light. Nice yield at 3 plants each about 3.5-4 oz per plant.
 
I have never had a mold problem w/my inside grows, knock on wood!! I imagine it's because I do have a large amount of air circulating in my tents
 
Ckbrew said:
That is one of those questions where you ask 100 people, get 100 different answers. It all depends on the details of your grow setup and what you are trying to achieve. I have used between 5 gallon plastic to solo cups. What I settled on is 3 gallon fabric. Four plants in a 5x5 tent. The plants fill the tent, so why go bigger? Smaller pots = less moisture in the tent = lower risk of bud rot and healthier plants. I started using a semi-auto bottom watering system and found it worked well. My first indoor grow I used 1 gallon windshield wash bottles with the top cut off and holes in the bottom. When I first started, not knowing what I was doing, I tried everything then chose what worked the next year. Maye not the best way to do it, but it worked for me. Get the basics down first, then fine tune the grow.
Click to expand...
I use windshield washer bottles to water my ganja plants. If O'Rielly's only knew!!
 
Chipmunk said:
I have never had a mold problem w/my inside grows, knock on wood!! I imagine it's because I do have a large amount of air circulating in my tents
Click to expand...
This is the first year in 7 that I did not have to deal with bud rot in the grow. lots of ventilation and circ fans. Last year only one small incidence. The difference this year was the bottom watering semi-auto system. The top of the coco stayed drier than top watering and I think that contributed to the outcome. Also the grow was later in the year to avoid high humidity and temp in the end bloom stage.
 
I'm sure you will figure it out since you are a great grower! Golf may have some input for you since I think he uses an auto pot system. Good luck my friend, I'm glad I don't feel that pain
 
Hi. Long worded - sorry. As others said, what you want for a result will define the pot sizes. Personally I will start to say that I try to grow several strains at least each time since I get used to any if consumed on a regular basis - like I develop a resistance if any is used too much. I use coco indoors now exclusively after many trials (I am somewhat lazy), which changes the dynamics of the grow because the roots don't have to chase their nutrtition - bigger plants need bigger pots for soil, but not as much for coco use. I have settled on 3 size pots, for my 2 by 4 and 4 by 4 tents, each 6 ft tall. Depending on the type of grow, and the plants, I have enough 1 gallon pots for 1ft by 1 ft spacing grows of a sea of green (15 in 4 by 4 and 6 in 2 by 4 ) with plants in the 1 to 3 Oz range - usually to use up older seeds. I also have 2 gal pots for mid sized plants (nine in 4 by 4 and three in 2 by 4 ) with typical 2 to 4 oz plants , as well as 3 gallon when I am growing bigger plants ,(typically 2 to 5 oz) typically five in 4 by 4 and two in 2 by 4. It takes less time to veg to fill in the area with more smaller plants, but it is also more work to handle them. The main issue with multiple strains are the differences in growth rates, so as they grow I frequently have to raise smaller plants to keep at good distance from the lights. Sea of green for me gets the largest harvest, mainly because I get impatient in vegging bigger plants so they often don't fill space. With coco I water at minimum every 1.5 days, so size of pot doesn't matter for watering times. I now almost always use plastic pots. did many grows side by side with bags, with no noticeable difference in the results, but the cloth ones dry out somewhat faster, and the plastic pots stay cleaner and are easier to deal with - In my opinion only.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top