I’m just using it as a buffer as I have never had issues with FFOF my first grow. This will just allow me to buffer a few days/weeks to make sure the plant can handle transition.
They way the plant can go from straight seedling mix to Half/half FFOF and seedling the full FFOF
I’m not mixing the whole thing
No I get that but I’m saying you might be better off just using the other mix by its self for the plug and a bit of the top layer
Gotcha instead of mixing the FFOF in ?
Yeah. I use happy frog but if that’s not available to you then that soil might be better I don’t know anything about it but I doubt it’s as rich as ocean forest.
Like you could do what you said but then your only cutting down ocean forest a bit and I think that’s not enough.
Even happy frog some sya to start a little solo cup worth of seedling soil in. But I haven’t gone that far I may try next time.
The roots grow faster if they arnt stopped by rich soil right But at the same time you want rich soil so you don’t have to feed nutes so much.
So it’s a balance and layering
@Nicky good advice on “layering” Ocean Forest.
I go with Happy Frog and OF. Great results.
I do the same.
My advice is
Put your Happy frog in a bin and in a different bin out your ocean forest, mix them with 30% Perlitre and then add Mykos (as per directions)
Grab your pot and put a wine bottle or some sort in the center.
Fill it a bit past 3/4 around the wine bottle with the ocean forest mix, maybe even all but haven’t compared side by side, pack it to ensure it won’t compress to much later when you water it.
Pull the center bottle or whatever and fill that with happy frog mix.
If your doing multiple plants same strain or just want to test it, try ones with 3/4 of the outter layer ocean forest vs all ocean forest and only the plug happy frog again I would like to test this side by side and may do it this summer for outdoor.
Why?
Your plants going to build a tap root and you want to allow it to go down as far as possible as fast as possible from there it will spread out into the ocean forest and get richer nutrients as it can handle it.
Should give you 4-5 weeks before you need to give nutrients/cal mag if running autos if in a 5 gallon pot.
@Nicky that’s almost exactly the way I did it but I used a flower pot instead of the wine bottle and I didn’t add any Mykos. I dont even know what it is.
Did your flower pot go right to the base of the pot? If not then that’s what you want next time.
Research Mykos, basically they are fungi that feed around the roots and increase root growth
Thanks for mentioning the mykos. I used it this grow and I wanted to dissect the roots after chopping and check out the roots and see if it did anything. I’m only a couple weeks away.
Do you add any nutrients to this type soil before flower?
The top of the flower pot/solo cup was even with the top of the fabric 5 gallon pot.
Yes in a 5 gallon you need to add bloom base nutrients once the soil runs out of nutrients, this is why you monitor run off. Although a big enough pot in theory could mean you wouldn’t need to I just haven’t had a chance to do that.
@Psu8286 oh you used a solo cup?
Yeah I meant use a tube or a bottle, you want the happy frog mix to go right from the bottom OT the top otherwise the roots will only go so far and then slow down as they hit the rich soil.
But it’s fine you’ll still grow good just not AS GOOD.
@Audiofreak no problem, it’s proven to work just look a world record holders of pumpkins and stuff, remember alot of variables can change but I did notice a change in my roots
I understand that it is not NECESSARY to feed for several weeks when growing in ocean forest. But what if I am trying to MAXIMIZE my growth and flowering potential? What is the very soonest that I could begin feeding my plants without causing problems? I have read so many conflicting theories for weeks now. I didn’t realize I could post questions on here so I figured I would try to get my own straightforward answer. I would appreciate your help! I am still a rookie! Thank you
So we see this kind of question frequently: how do I increase growth and yield?
It turns out to be a more complex problem than can be solved by pushing more fertilizer at the plant: there needs to be additional support of the plant to allow it to actually make use of those salts. The first is to optimize the ‘natural’ environment with correct lighting and amount (look up PPFD), right temperature and humidity range (look up VPD) and proper environment for roots. This is all in addition to genetics.
You CAN push high levels of salts to increase production but need one or more of these other parameters optimized before you can do that. As an example; if you do not have adequate light, the plant cannot transport liquids from the root zone to the canopy and if salt levels are too high under these conditions, nutrient burn will occur.
Those that really push plants find things like closed-loop CO2 grow spaces with HIGH levels of light allow very high salt levels to be introduced to the plant.
First; optimize your grow space. Use a good PH and TDS meter to stay within safe range for plants. Ask questions.
Ok thank you. So I have my grow tent optimized to the best of my ability. With a more than adequate light capable of about 900 PPFD. I have two of them in my 2x4 grow tent. I have CO2 supplemented, two fans for circulation plus my inline fan sucking air out through a carbon filter. I have everything I could think of ( that I could afford). So if I have everything optimized, I should be able to start introducing my fox farms fertilizers almost right away? Maybe 2 weeks after sprouting?? Would that be a good estimate?
If you are using FFOF no neuts until ppm’s drop to at least 1000 in runoff, otherwise you might very well burn the plant also dont start in ffof. Transplant into it.
Thank you! That is the answer I was looking for
You probably are not deriving any advantage by running supplemental CO2 in this manner. You need a climate-controlled closed loop system with high partial-pressures of CO2. PPF’s should be up closer to 1,200 to 1,500 µmol/j/m2 to get results. Plus; most growers that go this route use hydro as they can push high levels of salts as the plant demands: something that growing in soil simply can’t do.
I recommend monitor runoff TDS and in FFOF the target to start supplementing is a bit higher than in coco or peat. I usually suggest to start a modest regimen once TDS drops below about 2,000 in soil and 1,000 in soilless. Soil tends to buffer the nutes a bit better than coco so you can stay a little higher.
Thank you!
@Myfriendis410 thank you for letting me know about the unnecessary CO2 supplementation. But this brings up a new question for me: What PPFD is recommended when not supplementing CO2? Is 850-900 sufficient enough to get favorable results?