New Grower Question on Fox Farms Ocean Forrest.

[atpmixx]

Question for you experienced growers! I am gearing up to grow a Royal Queen Northern Lights auto after my first harvest.

How do you handle the OF with seedlings? I grew with a soilless mix (Lambert LM-3) the first time around, and would like to try OF for the NL. Had some ph problems with soilless, and am curious to try a different path this next time.

Im planning on germing in a jiffy pellet, then into a party cup with Jiffy seed starting mix and then finally into the OF in a 2.5 gallon airpot. Doing it this way because I have heard that OF is pretty hot and can burn your babies. Is this similar to what you should do? I also know that since OF is so nute heavy I wouldnt have to feed for a while. Of course, when do you start giving nutes then?

Thanks for all your help!

 

[waveguide]

i see people saying this a lot. i've been using it for a month or so and, while my grows haven't been perfect due to various reasons, i haven't seen anything that looked like nute burn.

aamof, i have a critical33 that i have to N the #### out of because it kept being chlorotic.

what i have noticed is that it seems to hold water like vermiculite (could be something else.. like the worm castings i added). it's the desert round here and the girls take a lot of heat and light, and they're going a week between waterings. which to me, is just totally bizarre.

 

[The Squid]

Question for you experienced growers! I am gearing up to grow a Royal Queen Northern Lights auto after my first harvest.

How do you handle the OF with seedlings? I grew with a soilless mix (Lambert LM-3) the first time around, and would like to try OF for the NL. Had some ph problems with soilless, and am curious to try a different path this next time.

Im planning on germing in a jiffy pellet, then into a party cup with Jiffy seed starting mix and then finally into the OF in a 2.5 gallon airpot. Doing it this way because I have heard that OF is pretty hot and can burn your babies. Is this similar to what you should do? I also know that since OF is so nute heavy I wouldnt have to feed for a while. Of course, when do you start giving nutes then?

Thanks for all your help!

That sounds like a solid plan. While it's true some have success with minimal issues using OF from the start, IMO you are better of doing exactly what you said. Jiffy is soil-less. What issues did yu have with soil-less? What kind of mix were you using?

As far as feeding, that depends on when you transplant. Is that NL a fem bean? If so, transplant after about 2 weeks. You can wait until sex too and that would be fine, but keep an eye out. In an 18oz party cup your plant will use up most or all of the nutes in there by day 14,possible day 12 depending on growth. After you transplant into the OF I say it would be another 2-3 weeks before you would need to feed more nutes. But again, just keep an on them and they can tell you when they want to be fed. Good luck bro.

 

[greenthumper]

Hey man I just harvested a Northern Lights that was grown in OF. I put the seed directly into the 3 gals of ffof because I was worried about transplant stress. She showed no sigh of burn and I started light feeding around day 20. The grow is in my signiture if you want to check it out. Best of luck with your NL :smokebuds:

 

[FooManBlue]

That sounds like a solid plan. While it's true some have success with minimal issues using OF from the start, IMO you are better of doing exactly what you said. Jiffy is soil-less. What issues did yu have with soil-less? What kind of mix were you using?

As far as feeding, that depends on when you transplant. Is that NL a fem bean? If so, transplant after about 2 weeks. You can wait until sex too and that would be fine, but keep an eye out. In an 18oz party cup your plant will use up most or all of the nutes in there by day 14,possible day 12 depending on growth. After you transplant into the OF I say it would be another 2-3 weeks before you would need to feed more nutes. But again, just keep an on them and they can tell you when they want to be fed. Good luck bro.

Great, spot-on advice. Would only add that atpmixx might consider mixing the OF (maybe 80-20, 75-25) with Light Warrior or Happy Frog, and then maybe add some perlite/vermiculite (10-20%) with that mix. Though it could affect your yield in the end, it would allow you to maintain better control over the grow and increase your chances for success.

 

[The Squid]

Great, spot-on advice. Would only add that atpmixx might consider mixing the OF (maybe 80-20, 75-25) with Light Warrior or Happy Frog, and then maybe add some perlite/vermiculite (10-20%) with that mix. Though it could affect your yield in the end, it would allow you to maintain better control over the grow and increase your chances for success.

That is surely an option. You can also(instead of mixing altogether) fill the first half of your bigger pot with OF then a layer of 50/50 mix of OF and LW or HF. This works too, I have seen this done with great success.

 

[PoopsMcDoogle]

FooManBlue is right. Cut it with HF or LW. I used OF and LW at equal parts and having good results right now. I hear 2:1 ratio of OF:LW is good. Ocean Forest needs liming too as it comes out of the bag at 5.5. I add 1TSP per gallon. I have tried straight OF out iof the bag and burned them all tio hell. Also I flush at 4 weeks because of salt build-up with OF.

 

[PoopsMcDoogle]

That is surely an option. You can also(instead of mixing altogether) fill the first half of your bigger pot with OF then a layer of 50/50 mix of OF and LW or HF. This works too, I have seen this done with great success.

Beat me to it homie. Sorry for repeating what you just said.

 

[atpmixx]

Thanks for all the quick advice! As far as my problems with the soilless mix, it was general high ph. Something I could have jumped on earlier if I had the correct ph meter. Unfortunately I didn't snag a good one until halfway through my grow. I just figured I would try something a little different with the next grow. And since Im using nutes, why not go all the way with a grow. I wonder if I can buy smaller bags of OF, HF and LW, since this will be a single plant grow. Hate to buy big bags of both soil if they aren't going to be all used up. So assuming I go half and half would I still need a party cup? Or think I could go straight in after the jiffy pellet?

 

[The Squid]

I would still use the tier method from cup just to be safe. And I forgot that OF needs lime, great point Poops. :thumbs: And surely they sell smaller bags, but if money isn't necessarily an issue then just get them, they don't go bad or anything if they're stored properly. Try and get 32 oz cups to use too, instead of 16-18oz. I see people do it all the time so you'll probably be fine, I just like to start in bigger cups now.