Is this a sign of root bound

I was looking st my plants today and a couple of them still aren’t doing the greatest. Anyway looking at the picture below does this look like a sign of root bound?

A little bit , but not to bad… are those the buckets in the picture that they were in? If so , I would put at least 6 sets of holes running up the sides… I can see one set in the pic , but can’t tell how many sets you have in the pic… on a 3 gallon I like to have at least 5 t0 6 sets of holes running up the sides… on 5 gallon , 7 to 8 sets…
As to your question , you have lots of roots but it doesn’t really look rootbound… rootbound is when your roots start to wrap around the pot that’s the reasoning for putting more air holes running up the sides of the pot to stop the plant from doing that… you could also put a couple air holes right in the corners of the pot which will also help in stopping the roots from trying to circle the pot…
You had mentioned something about having issues I would lean more towards a pH problem and if your pH is in check you must understand as your root ball in your root mass grows bigger you might need to start feeding your plants more because when you’re using an aerated pot it’s pretty hard to rootbound your plants… the thing is that they expel the soil and build more root structure which means that the soil that used to be there isn’t there now which causes you to feed your plants more because there isn’t that many nutrients laying around for them to absorb because they’ve already absorbed them …if that makes any sense… :wink:

:v: :sunglasses:

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Peachfuzz thanks for the response.
The pot in the picture is the pot the plant came out of. That pot does have 6 sets of holes running up the sides. I actually put this plant into a new pot that is a little bit deeper (the new pot also has 6 sets of holes up the sides) I put some soil in the bottom of the new pot and set the plant in so that those roots in the picture have some contact with soil rather than sitting against the bucket.
The plant in the picture has been having issues for a few weeks now. The PH of the runoff is around 6.2 I water with a PH of 5.8. I actually flushed this plant a few weeks ago and waited until it completely dried before adding any new nutes (which were added today) hoping the nutes I gave them helps the plant come back into it. I actually picked up some cal mag cause all of my plants were having slight issues and I’m pretty sure it was a lack of calcium. I The 3 plants I have that we’re doing better the the one in the pic last week with the cal mag in addition to the regular nutes and they came right back into it so I’m hoping giving the 2 that aren’t doing as well the cal mag that they will come back into it.

Anyway thanks again for your response.

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@Jmesser80

Eventually a plant will become root bound if not transplanted at some point. One thing that really helps, if the 100% organic, it’s to create zones, pockets and layers of nutrients for the roots to find and feed on. Doing this will help you grow larger plants in smaller pots without them becoming rootbound. In part the roots keep growing because they are looking for food. If there’s a concentrated food source the roots will focus on that area until the nutes are +exhausted then they will look elsewhere. Growers need to understand plants have been around longer than humans. Growers think they can out-do nature by bottle feeding or regularly dosing a plant in a pot with a concentrated nute solution so the plant is then fed globally. Follow natures laws and then the issue of a plant becoming rootbound fades away

Will

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