When To start topdressing when going in Ocean Forest

I started 2 auto zkittlez and 2 auto LSD Cake in solo cups using a 2 part happy frog and 1 part ocean foest and successfully transplanted into 3 gallon fabric pots with 50/50 happy frog and ocean forest. Third week after transplant they began to flower. Question is when should I topdress? I was thinking 4 weeks after transplant with dr earths 3-9-4 bloom.

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I never grew Auto’s! But with my photo i top dress at the light change: i use FFOF by itself: but i would say go with it now: more importantly what are the plants saying? :yin_yang: Healthy looking or hungry looking?

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Thanks! They look healthy and not really hungry. I just want to make sure I do not topdress to early. Its been 3 weeks into the new soil. I’ve been tossing around at week 3 or perhaps at week 4.

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Again you be the Judge as i said i only have photo experience in fox farm: i am sure not the same as i can not get a Auto going! Top dress usually takes about a week before its available if that helps

Thanks again. About a week before its available is exactly what I needed to know.

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Based on your starting soil ( I think I would transplant autos to 100% OF and skip on the HF) I would top dress now to make sure you stay on top of their food bank.

In a 3 gallon pot I generally dress at around 21 days from seed. Remember the ammendments can take over a week before they can be uptaken By the plant… You could always water some nutes in if you’re behind also.

I would then top dress again around day 40-50 from seed depending on strain. (80-90 day from seed I don’t want to get too early). Some I may do closer to day 35 from seed for the 2nd if they finish closer 70-75 days). Having stable genetics makes the timing easier for sure.

Strains that are big stretchers and branchers will be root bound in a 3 gallon by day 40-45. Sucks but it’s gonna happen. You’ll know by how fast the leaves start falling off.

In MY experience, a theee gal auto will need two top dresses while a 5 or 7 will only need one.

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Thank you! Totally makes sense to me! Thanks so much for your input

Also the lack of nutrients in your pot is probably why they took so long to flower. Most autos I’ve grown go into flower between day 25-35 from seed if they were healthy through veg. Bloom nutes can even trigger them around day 20.

So getting a preferrable soil blend is crucial in maximizing the size of an auto. Typically you will run your soil a little hotter with autos… no all but most seem to do ok with it.

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Actually my Autos started flowering within day 28 from sprout. 12 days in solo and 16 days after transplant into fresh soil in the 3 gallon pots.

Ahh that makes more sense then :slight_smile:

Why not top dress mix of bone meal and soil happy frog has great bone meal iv never used ocean forest soil tho but I imagine its close to the same as organic .try stay ahead of decency’s so hard to spot growing organic because have no clue wata going on in ur soil

Both HF and OF are “organic”. HF is basically blank media while OF has a vast array of macro and micro nutrients. Just adding fishbone meal alone to HF is not going to be sufficient. Autos generally seem to like more cal/mag as well.

The OF has the nutrients to feed your autos for 3-4 weeks depending on 3/5g pot. I would personally top dress by end of third week from potting.

I would definitely recommend topping with fish bone meal but I also add some craft blend for a wider spectrum of nutrients. Then throw kashi blend over the fish bone and craft blend before. burying it all with about 2in of top dress blend. Water it in with some fresh water, rootwise microbe complete and the last tiny dose of big six micro nutes. Your plant needs a wide spectrum of nutrients… Only feeding them fish bone meal would be like you only eating meat.

It helps with bigger pots or earthboxs as in organics, the bigger the pot the more stable the environment with a more robust bank of food the plant can uptake as it likes rather than constantly forcing nutes into through top watering.

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Thanks Robert! Lots of great info you put out. I really appreciate it. I will definitely topdress at the end of week 3 for sure

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There isn’t a light change for Autoflowers; unless I have been taught incorrectly, you can give them 20 hours of light for their entire lifecycle. If I am wrong, please educate!

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No thats absolutely Correct. :ballot_box_with_check: