Pre-edited -
BEWARE! - Stoner pontificating! Take what you want - leave the rest.
One thing I have seen in my grows, because I experiment with a lot of stuff as a newb trying to decide what works for me, is that pot size and timing make a difference, at least in soil.
Dropped a bunch of beans in solo cups. up-potted half to half gallons and half to 1 gallons. The ones in the half gallon stretched sooner
The one gallon plants took longer to stretch Both were waiting on flip, the 1's were almost twice the size of the 1/2's - That is in height, sprout growth, leaf size, everything. My thinking is that I should have up-potted the 1/2's as soon as they needed it rather than waiting on them to show sex. I have a collection of nursery cups of differrent shapes and sizes (the Bonnie cups from the garden center are great!) and what I have deduced is this:
When the roots hit the bottom/sides of the planter and start meeting resistance it sends more grow-goodies to the top. If you let each planter get really rootbound before re-pot it will stunt growth. If you keep up-potting before it gets rootbound at all I think that can stunt the early veg growth as well - but it will build a hell of a rootball in the final pot. But going right from a solo-cup to a 5 gallon can create issues too.
You have to find the jovial fortune-teller (
happy medium)
@J.James gave me a tip that has been great. For a plant to be able to do it's thing the best, allow for a quart of soil per week of grow, or a gallon/month. For a 4 week veg and a ~8 week flower a 3 gallon pot is perfect (trade gallons) If you know a plant will go longer get a boigger pot. Yes, you can flower out a plant in one gallons, but hand watering in soil it will be a daily chore at the end, and you may or may not have plant issues due to the stress.
