Oh good point. I was hoping the size of them (being in 30 gallons now) would be helpful but you’re probably on to something
no matter the size of the plant or root system, the tap roots go deep first, for water access. Containers prevent this, the tap root goes straight to the bottom of the pot and starts spining in circles.
The nutrient gathering fiber roots, spread outwards in the top few inches of soil. Out in all directions from the meristem. When they hit the container walls, they follow them down the sides of the pot, joint the tap root, and start spinning around in circles.
Fine roots will spread out evenly through the pot, but the meatiest, fastest growing roots will almost always find their way to the outer perimeter of a container. That's why circular pots are reccomended over square. So roots dont concetrate in any one spot before moving. And wider containers are reccomended for cannabis over more vertical ones, because cannabis doesn't make a particularly dramatic tap root. It makes one, but itll only go a foot or two deep before spreading out into thinner stringier roots. Sometimes a cannabis plant wont even make a legit tap root, itll make only nutrient gathering finer roots unless you let the plant get really big.
A small plant in a 30 gal pot, with container completely unshaded, (educated guessing, this is just stuff ive learned from time i lived in arizona, and being a long time succulent and cacti collector lol) would probably take a week or so to really start seeing the downsides of being in a black unshielded container, but i can almost promise, if you had a white one and identical plant next to it, after a month or two the difference would be fairly dramatic, and only be amplified as the plant got bigger if it wasnt able to shade the container well on its own. In Phoenix, any plant, doesnt matter, from cactus to hibiscus, if its in a container outside thats black and above ground, the thing will probably die sometime during the summer unless it's on a constant drip. Not just grow slower. Most ornamental gardens out there are built into white concrete planters at least 3 inches thick, in ground, or large 20+ gallon white concrete pots that are a couple inches thick. Thin black nursery pots can even partially melt out there if in sun or set on asphalt. If it gets above 90 frequently, black containers are not great ideas.
Just wraping some white linen cloth or pillowcase or something around a black pot can make a huge difference to root zone temp and moisture stability
Normally in a 30 gal youd be totally fine though, but conditions across the entire northern hemisphere are a bit intense rn. Its been 90 by 11am every day here in TN for like 2 weeks now without a drop of natural rain, and humidities which are normally about 50-60% this time of year here, are hovering around 20-25%. The trees are literally wilting and sunburning here, and people are dropping from heat illness all over the northern hemisphere from Kansas to germany to the middle east rn. Deciding to leave a tree to shade my plot from 4-6PM, im very glad i made that decision now
I have plants in ground, seeing 5 gallons a day right now, shaded from 4-6, that are still starting to look a bit overworked by the time the shade comes. Its brutal out there right now. More brutal then i recall for a while. I work outside for a living and havent had a sunburn in a couple years. I came home from work sunburned today.
If it stays hot enough, long enough, without a cool breezy night here and there, a larger pot will become a hinderance more then a smaller, itll take more days to get hot because it heats slowly, but once its hot, moisture, evaporation and air movement is far less efficient at cooling the thing because volume increases exponentially opposed to surface area on any given object. The very same thing that usually helps you regulate your root zone in more typical conditions, will become your enemy in conditions like this. Trying to cool a hot root zone with cold water can shock and even stall a plant too once the temp difference becomes large enough. At least with succulents and azaleas in phoenix anyway. If an azalea in a container is too hot, and you give it cold water, you can kill it after a few cold waterings (if the pot is small enough and its bound anyway lol)
Sorry
sativa dabs.
and I also bought a hydrometer from Govee, it really let me see my hot spikes and it made me change my water habit ! Keeps my temp under 90° all day outside . Now they look like this 3 months in.
vpd, dew point, alarms
I fell in love with them as soon as they popped which has been working against me lmao. I honestly think my obsessing has been my worst enemy at this point. I worried about not enough sun, about them being leggy, about the wind, steady running around in my backyard trying to control nature. It’s all part of the adventure, if I had started growing and it was easy I probably would have forgotten about them by now.
