Читать книгу The Cannabis Grow Bible - Greg Green - Страница 82

This section is about a premeditated transplant. If you need to make an emergency transplant because of overfeeding, then consult “soil flushing.”

Transplanting is the procedure of taking something from one location and then moving it to another location. Technically, transplanting can occur over any conceivable distance. The primary concern in all instances throughout the method is plant health and avoiding unnecessarily damage. Transplants can be as simple as moving a germinated seedling from its incubation cube to some soil in a simple, swift pickup and bury, and as advanced as moving multiple fully grown plants from one location to another over long distances. Transplanting is all about preplanning and executing the plan carefully. It can be challenging but experience makes it easier and will give you more confidence.

Clean your tools and containers. Many cultivators consider the digging of the plant to be the most difficult part of the process. For small plants, a simple hand-held trowel with a pointed, scooped metal blade is used to break up the soil. Plant nurseries can sell specialized transplanting trowels if you are interested in high volume work. The trowel may also be used for preparing a hole in the plant’s new medium.

Transplanting if done correctly shouldn’t put your plant through too much stress or fail to produce a bounty. Transplants can still generate some amazing nuggets of dankness like this Kush bud.

The base of some plants can get very big and thick. This is one of the thickest cannabis bases I have ever seen.

Preparing the new medium before working on the transplant is an absolute essential for success—as is working with healthy plants. Working with damaged plants or an emergency transplant always reduces the rate of success. If you need to do an emergency transplant because of a problem, consult Chapter 7. Weather conditions should be factored in if the transplant will take place outdoors. A cold, windy day is not the best environment to carry around an exposed plant. Plants moving into different environments, going from good conditions to bad, are more susceptible to problems than plants going into similar or better-quality environments. If you must choose from a selection for successful reproduction of a garden, then vigorous plants are better suited to relocation procedures.

Propagation determines the outcome. The more control and planning you put into propagation the better your results and grow will be.

Estimation of the root ball size comes with experience and is variable from strain to strain and growing conditions. Hydroponics growers can usually see the root mass and do not need to dig because the plant can be removed from the hydroponics unit directly. Roots produced in water are usually very different, being more fragile, from those produced in soil. Other substrates can cause the roots to grow differently. Roots growing in liquid tend to be weaker than roots growing in soil.

Plants that are near maturation, with a trunk size of 3-4” and over, may require two people to hold the root mass and the plant for transport. A canvas spread (which can be used when harvesting) can carry the plant as though on a stretcher. Transplanting at these late stages is uncommon, as transplant shock may cause sexual dysfunction in the flowers. Transplants can be successful for any size plant over any distance, as long as the preparation is good and care is taken. The reason for the care is to not only avoid bad transplants or plant damage but to prevent the plant from going into shock. This type of shock is called “transplant shock.”

Transplant shock can be caused by a number of factors, most commonly root damage, plant damage, or overexposure of the roots. Plants that are being transplanted may be more susceptible to contamination by pests and disease. Transferring plants in or to the wrong medium may cause transplant shock, overcrowding may cause undue stress and transplant shock. Plan the move well. Protect your plants by handling them carefully, and make sure that you are moving them to a safe, secure site with plenty of room to grow.

Digging a tree or shrub in preparation for transplanting involves several steps. Various digging techniques can be employed, but no matter what approach is used, these steps must be attended to. The information covered here includes just the bare essentials. There are many factors which should be taken into account if one is to realize the best possible results. These considerations include the species of plant being moved and its condition, the soil conditions, climate, season of the year, and accessibility of the site.

Transplanting can occur anytime from seedling stages to flowering. Here a seedling in a rockwool cube is being transplanted.

Plants that have undergone several transplants can be just as good as plants that have not if the transplants are done properly.

This giant wall of bud will produce a giant harvest.

For potted plants, the whole soil will come up with the plant and go directly into a new medium (unless the plant is being treated for transplant shock) and so digging it up will not be necessary and instead the trowel will just be used to make the hole in the transplant medium. If the pot has the capability, it should be lifted and checked for any visible roots. If any are exposed, a quick check for any blackening will reveal if the plant has suffered any cold damage already. If the roots have grown out of the drainage holes and are small, then check to make sure they are free enough to go back through the holes again as you pull the plant up, or else you may tear the roots along the way. If they are tangled, then you will need a knife to cut these small roots so that the plant can move freely through the pores. Big roots protruding from the drainage holes can be a problem because avoiding main root damage is essential to a stress free and successful transplant. It is far better to saw or cut a cheap plastic pot to free a large root in the drainage system than to cut the root. Protruding roots are usually a sign that the plant may already be going through some pot-bound stress. A pot-bound plant cannot find space to produce roots and so creates a winding wall of roots around the inside rim of the container. If the container is particularly small and the plant is big, then this pot-bound wall chokes the plant’s roots and can stress the plant to failure if left untreated.

Check the plan in your head. Work through what you will do with the plant after it has been uprooted. Once you are certain that you have a transportation route without obstruction, then you should start to prepare the transplant medium well before you dig up the plant. The transplant medium is entirely up to you.

Cannabis has a tendency to produce lots of root in vegetative growth if growing under optimal conditions. Measure the trunk diameter and multiply it by 20. This is a general formula for estimating how far the roots will extend out under the soil. After you find out how big they actually are, you can use this experience for next time. This same figure is also how far the root penetrates down into the soil.

Use the trowel to cut 1/6 of the way around the estimated root ball size—do it slowly. Use your hands to part the soil gently and observe any roots, if you can. If you have gone through roots or can see roots on both sides of the soil, then make the cut bigger until you find no roots. Roots can, and do, grow unequally and unevenly so care should be taken in cutting and checking that you do not slice roots. Slitting a smaller root does not mean that you will kill the plant but the more roots that get damaged, the greater the chances of inducing stress and limiting the chances of recovery.

Once you have cleanly cut through medium so you can lift the root ball out, you are ready to transplant. Clear away any roots attached to anything that can obstruct a clean uprooting. Plants that have intertwined roots because of crowded spaces will have this problem. If you can’t loosen the roots slowly, then you can either cut directly down halfway or salvage one plant’s roots more than the others by cutting away more roots from one to keep the other plant’s roots intact and intermingled with the separated ones. If you have done all these things, you are prepared for the lift.

Depending on the root ball size, the plant can be lifted without aid and the root ball stabilized with one hand and the stem with the other. It is possible and advised to bag larger root masses that are to be moved over longer distances. Canvas is always helpful.

Root pruning before transplanting is a debatable topic. There are two schools of thought: leave the roots alone and transplant, or clean them and prune them to fit the transplant medium. There are circumstances where restricted transplant space means that pruning is necessary. Simply plant into the new medium and clean your tools after.

Why not recycle? Old products may have some use if you are inventive enough with them. Keep it green.