Osmocote Plus Plant Food: Discuss Its Use With Cannabis Here!

Panic...I'm no expert, but since keeping up with these posts by these experinced folks, I went to OC+ including mother plants...so far, they are the healthiest, most lush plants I've gown...I spent hundreds of bucks on nuits, and would often have some problem..I have some buddies that grow, and I guess they and others know how to use the expensive products out there...but I like the simplicity...OC+ works great for me...
 
Learning

Growing a NL in 13.5 wks of flowering, looks no where close to being done. Still new bud growth all over the plant.

Observations and mistakes I think I have made about the plant and the nutes;
1. I think I went to light on the CRF's considering the temps were real high. (1tsp/gal)
2. around 8-9 wk Didn't want to add ferts thinking it would be done any day
3. Lost a lot of the main leaves due to lack of nutes. (i think)
4. At wk 10 of flowering, tried to give what leaves were left some nutes so added 2 tbsp OC+ top dress
5. week after that she took off fox tailing like crazy and hasn't stopped yet
6. haven't added any more nutes till today, (very light dose of peters, only nutes in the house)
7. think I made the hempy hole to big, used 1/2 inch spade bit (bigger than a pencil) Bucket empties fast

I am assuming if I would have known better I would have added more nutes to start, supplemented with a decent fert along the way and kept adding them until a week before shes ready. I bet she would have been a lot healthier and fatter than she is now. Don't get me wrong, she is a pretty nice thick plant that is frosting up nicely, but a lot of untapped potential I think I let slip by.

I think she is a sativa pheno and will take some time yet. When you dig into a bud to examine it there is so much more new growth underneath its amazing, and notice the new growth green tips.
Here are a few shots from another post last week, here are some more if you wanna check them out No end in sight? pt2 fox tail pics
NL_14_weeks_fox_tail_14_R.JPG

NL_14_weeks_flowering_3_R.JPG
 
Great post HH. You said 1 tsp/gal, did you mean 1 tbsp? I've been using at least 2 tbsp/gal, I'm going through the OC+ fast but it's so cheap I don't care. The only thing I'm supplementing are the micronutes, esp cal/mag. Great healthy plants I couldn't be happier.

Watch for dead sugar leaves, they caused bud rot for me last grow.

Hope she finishes soon for you, she looks great. I went 16 weeks last year it seemed like it would never end.
 
Dexter4Morgan said:
getting confused again TRF's are Dynamite. I forget what group CRF's fall into
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same thing TRF's and CRF's. i think i started the TRF's because i couldn't remember CRF's. so i called is TRF's ( time release fertilizers.) TRF's or CRF's are anything thats controlled release or time release ferts like DM OC+ and others.

ive had many people ask that question and i think i was the 1st one to call it TRF's and confused everyone. or maybe i wasn't. most call it CRF's. unless they have been hanging around me too much.lol
 
Anyone who says Osmocote works better than Advanced Nutrients Connoisseur has lost their mind. I did a test grow where I grew two purple Urkle plants from clone and planted, vegged and flowered for the exact same amount of time. One plant was given Connoisseur and SensiZym and Azamax (for fungus gnat control, not during the whole plants life cycle, for about a week). The other plant was not fed Osmocote but was was grown organically with no fertilizers given whatsoever besides bong water and whatever nutrients were in the 3 gallons of Fox Farm Ocean Forrest Soil. Both plants produced huge purple buds but the plant grown in hydro with Connoisseur stayed green throughout the whole flowering stage instead of yellowing like the container plant with no nutes and the plant grew about twice as large. This wasn't a test so much about Osmocote or any other fertilizer but to show that if the plant has GOOD GENETICS very little fertilizer of any kind is needed, so why use Osmocote? It's cheap and that is the only thing it has going for it. It is a synthetic fertilizer. The more you learn about growing and the more you read the smart growers feed the soil not the plant. Having bioactive soil and healthy root mass is much more important than ratios and nitrogen percentages and blah blah blah. Get the soil active like it is in nature...try to replicate nature to the best of your abilities. If you can do that, and make it just a little bit better, than plant will do the rest, with or without the man made fertilizers.
 
Growing247 said:
Anyone who says Osmocote works better than Advanced Nutrients Connoisseur has lost their mind. I did a test grow where I grew two purple Urkle plants from clone and planted, vegged and flowered for the exact same amount of time. One plant was given Connoisseur and SensiZym and Azamax (for fungus gnat control, not during the whole plants life cycle, for about a week). The other plant was not fed Osmocote but was was grown organically with no fertilizers given whatsoever besides bong water and whatever nutrients were in the 3 gallons of Fox Farm Ocean Forrest Soil. Both plants produced huge purple buds but the plant grown in hydro with Connoisseur stayed green throughout the whole flowering stage instead of yellowing like the container plant with no nutes and the plant grew about twice as large. This wasn't a test so much about Osmocote or any other fertilizer but to show that if the plant has GOOD GENETICS very little fertilizer of any kind is needed, so why use Osmocote? It's cheap and that is the only thing it has going for it. It is a synthetic fertilizer. The more you learn about growing and the more you read the smart growers feed the soil not the plant. Having bioactive soil and healthy root mass is much more important than ratios and nitrogen percentages and blah blah blah. Get the soil active like it is in nature...try to replicate nature to the best of your abilities. If you can do that, and make it just a little bit better, than plant will do the rest, with or without the man made fertilizers.
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I'm pretty sure no one here said osmocote+ was in any way BETTER than AN, or anything else for that matter. osmocote+ has been represented as a cheap ALTERNATIVE to the WAY MORE EXPENSIVE AN and GH, the list goes on, specially made ferts for marijuana. Thats all. If you are angry because irishboy grew some huge ass buds with just osmocote without spending 1000.00 for AN's connosieur line then sorry, but argue the point or not, osmocote, DM red and purple, they work for marijuana with very little additions.
 
Growing247 said:
Anyone who says Osmocote works better than Advanced Nutrients Connoisseur has lost their mind. I did a test grow where I grew two purple Urkle plants from clone and planted, vegged and flowered for the exact same amount of time. One plant was given Connoisseur and SensiZym and Azamax (for fungus gnat control, not during the whole plants life cycle, for about a week). The other plant was not fed Osmocote but was was grown organically with no fertilizers given whatsoever besides bong water and whatever nutrients were in the 3 gallons of Fox Farm Ocean Forrest Soil. Both plants produced huge purple buds but the plant grown in hydro with Connoisseur stayed green throughout the whole flowering stage instead of yellowing like the container plant with no nutes and the plant grew about twice as large. This wasn't a test so much about Osmocote or any other fertilizer but to show that if the plant has GOOD GENETICS very little fertilizer of any kind is needed, so why use Osmocote? It's cheap and that is the only thing it has going for it. It is a synthetic fertilizer. The more you learn about growing and the more you read the smart growers feed the soil not the plant. Having bioactive soil and healthy root mass is much more important than ratios and nitrogen percentages and blah blah blah. Get the soil active like it is in nature...try to replicate nature to the best of your abilities. If you can do that, and make it just a little bit better, than plant will do the rest, with or without the man made fertilizers.
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I think DocBud has made the claim that OC+ is equal to AN and other expensive nute lines... which he has found by testing both.

Kind of interesting you choose to comment on something you have no experience using?
 
Growing247 said:
Anyone who says Osmocote works better than Advanced Nutrients Connoisseur has lost their mind. I did a test grow where I grew two purple Urkle plants from clone and planted, vegged and flowered for the exact same amount of time. One plant was given Connoisseur and SensiZym and Azamax (for fungus gnat control, not during the whole plants life cycle, for about a week). The other plant was not fed Osmocote but was was grown organically with no fertilizers given whatsoever besides bong water and whatever nutrients were in the 3 gallons of Fox Farm Ocean Forrest Soil. Both plants produced huge purple buds but the plant grown in hydro with Connoisseur stayed green throughout the whole flowering stage instead of yellowing like the container plant with no nutes and the plant grew about twice as large. This wasn't a test so much about Osmocote or any other fertilizer but to show that if the plant has GOOD GENETICS very little fertilizer of any kind is needed, so why use Osmocote? It's cheap and that is the only thing it has going for it. It is a synthetic fertilizer. The more you learn about growing and the more you read the smart growers feed the soil not the plant. Having bioactive soil and healthy root mass is much more important than ratios and nitrogen percentages and blah blah blah. Get the soil active like it is in nature...try to replicate nature to the best of your abilities. If you can do that, and make it just a little bit better, than plant will do the rest, with or without the man made fertilizers.
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What about all the growers who don't grow in soil?
What about all the growers who don't want to spend $100+ a grow on macro nutes?

I think my plants have done fantastic with the combination of DM red and OC+. Just sampled some bud this morning and it burned fine without a legit dry and cure time.

You state you have never used OC+ so you really have no platform to talk about how it doesn't work. Many growers here will tell you the exact opposite in fact.


:peace:
 
Last I heard Doc was offering his expensive mostly unused nutes FREE to anyone who cares to come get them.

There are also us growers who tend to want to overfeed and/or don't want to spend time mixing formulas each feeding. Plus save money. Plus grow almost perfect plants.

Doc will agree with you about soil, he's in soil right now. But I don't want to do all that, and since I don't know what I'm doing I'd probably screw it up and spend my grow trying to keep the plants alive, forget about in perfect health.

If you want a cheap, easy & stonerproof way to grow great plants go pick up some Dynamite or OC+. You won't be disappointed.
 
Setting Sun said:
could the bud rot have caused the dead sugar leaves, as it usually starts from the inside out?

I'm also seeing that CRF's work best when supplemented every third watering or so with some liquid nutes, which jives with a couple of high-brow university studies I read.
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It's certainly possible SS, all of a sudden a bunch of cola leaves started dying, and that's where all the rot was. Was fighting 95+ temps and humidity at the time.

Can you elaborate on supplemental feedings, such as what type and strenght? Thanks.
 
I supplemented with Dutch Masters Gold Flower at 600 PPM - definitely made the buds swell, but also seemed to create either lockouts or salt issues as the leaves looked like hell afterwards. It certainly could have been my specific setup - I had pure perlite, and I think that it needs some kind of buffer when using OC+.

The buds are simply incredible though - I've grown, cured, and smoked the same strains in dirt outdoors, and the taste is much more distinctive from the OC+ buds - the outdoor Strawberry Cough and Blue widow both had berry notes, but the OC+ Strawberry grown indoors in a vertical CMH setup actually tastes like strawberries, and the OC+ Blue Widow has an amazing blueberry taste... neither is harsh in the least after a two month cure.

I'm about to start a worm farm, and I already have a tub of aged manure... so I will find out if pure organics can exceed what the OC+ has produced in the same setup... but it's been proven to me that it's very hard to beat.
 
BlueDog said:
It's certainly possible SS, all of a sudden a bunch of cola leaves started dying, and that's where all the rot was. Was fighting 95+ temps and humidity at the time.

Can you elaborate on supplemental feedings, such as what type and strenght? Thanks.
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Any decent general purpose nutes would do. Fox Farms, General Hydroponics, Age Old, etc.

I would go at no higher than 1/2 strength with anything you use because it's being used to supplement the CRF base nutes.

I've been using GH's Maxigro and Maxibloom, which are dry powdered nutes, and I've never had nicer looking plants, both in soil and hydro.

These are definitely the cheapest and best nutes I've ever used. Even in soil, I see the plants respond rapidly to feedings, which tells me that the nutes are quickly and easily available to my ladies.

I've never seen soil plants green up in real-time before, but with the Maxi nutes, I watched my ladies go from pale green to deep green in about 10 minutes. I was completely amazed.

I'm using them at 1/4-1/2 strength for soil, and 1/2-3/4 strength for hydro.

I do have to shake the powder up a bit to get it to dissolve well, but it's no big deal.

Super cheap, very high quality, works for both soil and hydro, PH buffered, very long shelf-life as long as it stays dry, gives me the ability to custom-blend my nutes by varying the ratio of grow to bloom, flushes out clean.

IMO, these nutes are just about perfect for my needs.

I'm running my hydro plants at around 500-600ppm, and my soil plants at 300-400.

Silent Bob said:
I supplemented with Dutch Masters Gold Flower at 600 PPM - definitely made the buds swell, but also seemed to create either lockouts or salt issues as the leaves looked like hell afterwards. It certainly could have been my specific setup - I had pure perlite, and I think that it needs some kind of buffer when using OC+.

The buds are simply incredible though - I've grown, cured, and smoked the same strains in dirt outdoors, and the taste is much more distinctive from the OC+ buds - the outdoor Strawberry Cough and Blue widow both had berry notes, but the OC+ Strawberry grown indoors in a vertical CMH setup actually tastes like strawberries, and the OC+ Blue Widow has an amazing blueberry taste... neither is harsh in the least after a two month cure.

I'm about to start a worm farm, and I already have a tub of aged manure... so I will find out if pure organics can exceed what the OC+ has produced in the same setup... but it's been proven to me that it's very hard to beat.
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OC+ and other good CRF's, grow beautiful plants all by themselves for peeps looking for the ultimate in ease and simplicity, but for those who want to push things a little more, there is the option to supplement with conventional nutes.

I believe you've also used the Maxi nutes, Silent Bob. What was your impression?

IIRC, you mentioned that they run a little hot at the recommended strength. My Sunset Kush ladies love the stuff even at full strength, but they're complete gluttons ;).
 
Growing247 said:
Anyone who says Osmocote works better than Advanced Nutrients Connoisseur has lost their mind. I did a test grow where I grew two purple Urkle plants from clone and planted, vegged and flowered for the exact same amount of time. One plant was given Connoisseur and SensiZym and Azamax (for fungus gnat control, not during the whole plants life cycle, for about a week). The other plant was not fed Osmocote but was was grown organically with no fertilizers given whatsoever besides bong water and whatever nutrients were in the 3 gallons of Fox Farm Ocean Forrest Soil. Both plants produced huge purple buds but the plant grown in hydro with Connoisseur stayed green throughout the whole flowering stage instead of yellowing like the container plant with no nutes and the plant grew about twice as large. This wasn't a test so much about Osmocote or any other fertilizer but to show that if the plant has GOOD GENETICS very little fertilizer of any kind is needed, so why use Osmocote? It's cheap and that is the only thing it has going for it. It is a synthetic fertilizer. The more you learn about growing and the more you read the smart growers feed the soil not the plant. Having bioactive soil and healthy root mass is much more important than ratios and nitrogen percentages and blah blah blah. Get the soil active like it is in nature...try to replicate nature to the best of your abilities. If you can do that, and make it just a little bit better, than plant will do the rest, with or without the man made fertilizers.
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care to show pics of that test?
also since you haven't used OC+ i dont really think u have ground to make that call.

it is true that good organic soil can produce good things with just water but that cant be compared to OC+ vs AN. thats organics Vs AN.

Also DM makes organic TRF's thats ORMI
 
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