Fox Farms light warrior seed starting. Warning!!!

nobody important

Active Member
Hey guys,
While Im a new member, I have been searching through this site for years out of boredom during "work breaks". I recently decided to sprout new seeds. These were holy grail by dna followed by the rest of the seeds from attitudes Christmas Promo. It has been awhile that I have started seeds. Been using clones for years. Recently nearing the end of harvest I had an accident that almost ruined my harvest, but ended up killing all new coming clones and remaining mother plants as well. This led me to start a new grow using all new strains. While at the hydro store getting promix for seedlings, I let a guy talk me into buying the lightwarrior instead and he explains to me why its so much better for seedlings than pro mix. Everything I know from over a decade of experience and common sense told me not to buy it. I even began a debate how seedlings needed nothing but a neutral medium and water. No nutes, no beneficials, just water. He simply kept on raving about it and then proceeded to tell me that he would guarantee me I would not regret it. I gave in. Now I regret it. I planted all but one seedling in the lightwarrior. The remaining one,for shits and giggles, I planted in Miracle Grow seed starting formula because I have a home depot 2 mins from the house vs. the hydro store being 2 hours away. I simply wanted to test the miracle grow for future reference even though its frowned upon for our industry. The pictures ive included will show you what these seedlings look like at 14 days including germination. What you are looking at is the lightwarriors housing all of my DNA beans and all of the promos as well with the exception of an auto strain I randomly put in the miracle grow. The evidence speaks for itself. The miracle grow is thriving while lightwarriors are dying. From the very beginning, before even planting, I checked runoff on both soils from the initial soak thru using virgin R.O. water at 6.0ph. Light warrior came back with an impressive ph of 6.0. Miracle grow came back at at just a hair over 4.0. (massively acidic). I decided to plant seeds without any further adjustments. Not even any adjustments to the acidic miracle grow. Immeidately I noticed the miracle grow cup sprouted the fastest. Once all seeds popped out of soil I knew something was already wrong due to the miracle grow cup growing like its on steroids compared to EVERY OTHER cup. I begin taking evasive maneuvers and discovered what was causing my problems. Once seedlings established, I decided to flush all cups, even the miracle grow that was not having problems with 6.0ph water. The miracle grow cup showed the same acidic runoff of just over 4.0ph. The lightwarrior was now at over 8.0ph (alkaline medium). Realizing there is no way in hell these seeds will survive, I immediately flushed again this time with the most acidic water Ive ever ph'd at 4.0. I waited 10 minutes and flushed again with the same 4.0 water. Another 10 minutes and I flushed again with the same 4.0ph water. YOU READ THIS RIGHT. In less than an hour these cups were flushed once with 6.0ph water, followed by 3 flushes at 4.0ph. I checked the runoff of a cup towards the very end of the stream (now mostly clearish looking liquid and not orange brown as it was at first) and the PH for lightwarrior was still over 7.5. This is unacceptable. It seems light warrior is not a soil less mix and deserves to sit on the perlite shelf as most of this garbage is nothing but oystershells and perlite with a splash of peat. The reason why I suffered these ph levels is strictly due to the massive amount of oyster shell content in the mix. Let this be a lesson to all. Oystershells have no place in any seed starting mix. I can understand the importance of buffing PH, but that should only apply to grow soil thats had a chance for the peat to try to become acidic. I wonder how many newbies have bought this garbage to only blame the seed companies for "bad" seeds. Enclosed I will include the pics of the comparison, a picture that shows how much garbage is in this lightwarrior mix and a picture that shows one of the 4xs flushed medium that came out of the cup. The last picture shows that light warrior is NOT light and fluffy because of all the perlite and oyster shell they used but because it has no wetting agent. the water just runs right through not even being absorbed by most of the peat as the last picture will show dry spots everywhere immediately after each cup received half a gallon of water. So for future reference to the newbies... all you need to start seeds is sterilized peat moss with a wetting agent and preferably r.o. water at 6.0ph. Do NOT BUY LIGHT WARRIORView attachment 3325074 View attachment 3325074 View attachment 3325075 View attachment 3325075 View attachment 3325074
 

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tstick

Well-Known Member
Wow, That sucks, man.

I grow in TGA Subcool's base mix for seedlings and then I mix in some of his super soil when they are ready for it. I know this sounds funny, but TGA's stuff looks, smells and feels like good soil. I see a lot of people's mixes and they look like they have lots of peat and bark in them….but that light warrior shit just looks silly.

I'd probably try and get some of them out of that shit and into the Miracle Gro soil if that's your only alternative.
 

nobody important

Active Member
yes sir. lesson learned. Last night I carefully Removed all light warrior seedlings from cups. I meticulously removed all the crap from the roots. Transplanting in miracle grow now would have been detrimental to the already stressed seedlings due to the small nute charge in it. So I transplanted in straight perlite using solo cups with a small hole on the side 3/4 inch from bottom, basically copying the hempy style. Its the only thing I could think of that would place them in the most nurturing environment (water and oxygen) in an attempt to save this $200 order of seeds (2 packs of the holy grail). I can already tell I will lose around half of these and am debating if I should just order a whole new batch.
 

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Ulu

New Member
I had the same problem. I placed fifteen Killa Kush seeds into fifteen individual solo brand cups filled with "Fox Farms Light Warrior® Seed Starter" soil, and only five sprouted.

At first I thought it was the seeds I bought. So, I placed ten Cheeseberry seeds into a one and half inch hole of moist "Fox Farms Light Warrior® Seed Starter" soil again. Only one sprouted.

The temperature in my grow tent was 26 degrees Celsius under T5 lighting.

Furthermore; I watered them, after the initial watering, every 3 days with one cup of water so they didn't germinate due to a lack of water,

Nonetheless, I even went so far and took the seeds from up out of the soil, after 15 days, to make sure I had not buried them to far. To my surprise, not one of them popped (germinated).

Threw out the "Fox Farms Light Warrior® Seed Starter" today. I bought fox farm regular soil also. I worried it may ruin my entire grow.

Next time I am using regular dark soil. The less perlite the better.

I wish they sold P-jord Hasselfors here in the states or something similar. The soil here seems so dry and stale.
 
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Ulu

New Member
yes sir. lesson learned. Last night I carefully Removed all light warrior seedlings from cups. I meticulously removed all the crap from the roots. Transplanting in miracle grow now would have been detrimental to the already stressed seedlings due to the small nute charge in it. So I transplanted in straight perlite using solo cups with a small hole on the side 3/4 inch from bottom, basically copying the hempy style. Its the only thing I could think of that would place them in the most nurturing environment (water and oxygen) in an attempt to save this $200 order of seeds (2 packs of the holy grail). I can already tell I will lose around half of these and am debating if I should just order a whole new batch.
What about the regular Fox Farms Ocean Forest? Will you be using it?
 

ChrispyCritter

Well-Known Member
I am definitely not a Fox Fart/Monsanto/Bayer supporter but I've got a bag of light warrior I bought just because it was available where I'm at and I've started a couple hundred seeds in it. I use Dixie cups to start in so my bag just never ends. I've never watered a seedling to runoff, checked the ph or flushed a plant let alone a seedling. Keep them moist, use Bio Ag endos and leave em alone.
 
I think the light warrior mix is to be used with RO water. Most RO water would would test at 5.5 pH. The natural starting point of pH in the light warrior, at least my bag, is 8.5ish. if you give straight RO water for 2-3 weeks, the medium will start to them more acidic after that point, your giving them the perfect pH to hit around upper 6's. That works perfect transplanting into regular soil. That's what I found with my bag at least. Stay lifted...
 
Also, I'm not for Fox Farm at all. This product is terrible and wouldn't recommend it over other products on the market. Like the other guy, I used this out of availability in my small are, as something I can use in a pinch. Like other dude, I have to drive an hour and a half to hit a real hydro store. You would be much better off by just starting them in Happy Frog.
 
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