I'm a newbie as well and I'm growing white widows too, ALSO using fox farm ocean forest. (ffof)
To find out which method worked best I planted 3 seeds in 3 different ways.
I planted 1 in a (hydro farm jump start biodegradable) pellet, one in plain ffof dirt, and one in a half filled pot of ffof, put the expanded pellet in, and filled up the edges evenly to the top of the pellet.
1. ffof dirt: having trouble popping and I fear it may die.
2. ffof + pellet: growing, popped 2 days before the others and growing strong
3. pellet: Surprisingly it's growing but just barely getting ready to pop, it looks in better condition than the one in plain ffof but not growing as quickly as my now 2 1/2 inch tall Ww in the ffof dirt + pellet.
I also did this test with a non-marijuana plant at the same time and got the same results.
My conclusion is that
as a seedling:
In the pellet, it will grow, but slowly.
In ffof, it will grow slowly but die soon due to over nutrition.
In the pellet + ffof, it will absorb the proper levels of nutrients while filtering out some of the bigger chunks resulting in much quicker and healthier growth.
My only concern is when the roots reach through the pellet and into the ffof... I hope it's not too early for my little plant by then.
I'll update in a week or so.