What FoxFarm Mix grows the best buds?

[budelight]

Hi All,

I am having a dilemma as to which FoxFarm soil I should order next. My local spot stopped carrying it so im looking to try out something new. They will special order for me, just want advice on what i should get.

Looking for everyones advice as to see what the community prefers.

Ocean Forest Organic Potting Soil

Happy Frog Organic Potting Soil

Light Warrior Soilless Mix

Organic Planting Mix

Thanks
Budelight

 

[mtbazz]

None?

A few years back I was a big advocate of FFOF, than I had a couple of grows that went to shit…at the same time my local hydro shop stopped carrying them because of customer complaints about low pH.

I am using Roots Organics now.

 

[sdd420]

Has anyone tried tiger bloom? It's a liquid with EWC and kelp etc looks easy to use

 

[Hank Hemp]

I don't use happy frog but the other three together. Moonshine mix. There's a thread.

 

[budelight]

None?

A few years back I was a big advocate of FFOF, than I had a couple of grows that went to shit…at the same time my local hydro shop stopped carrying them because of customer complaints about low pH.

I am using Roots Organics now.

Hi mtbazz - nice to emeet you. I understand where you are coming from. Unfortunately i dont have a hydro store close by and my local hardware store doesn't carry roots organic. Gotta work with what they are willing to order.

Has anyone tried tiger bloom? It's a liquid with EWC and kelp etc looks easy to use

Nah, sdd - i never have used FF's fert lines, just their soil mixes. I actually use MaxiGrow & MaxiBloom just to keep things simple. Since i dont have pots larger than 1 gallon, my babies tent to get rootbound, if i had large enough pots, not sure i would need to feed the plants much at all using FF mixes. Good luck and let us know how it goes for you!

I don't use happy frog but the other three together. Moonshine mix. There's a thread.

Thanks Hank, i would totally make some Moonshine mix if i had the place to store all the excess, i only buy about 3 bags of soil per year, and dont have much space for storage. Sounds like the best of all worlds tho!

I used FFOF for a year and loved it. Since starting back up again, my local spot hasnt had FFOF, only carried FFHF so ive used that for the past year.

Just yesterday i bought a bag of perlite and mixed in a few cups to some FFHF as i was transplanting and it looks and feels much better for small plants (which i have) that just straight FFHF.

Will see in a few weeks how the plants respond... should be interesting.

I too have heard the rumors about the soil mix changing but when its an organic mix, i dont expect them to have access to the same exact material forever and i am ok with that. Just want whats best for my little plants.

 

[sdd420]

Yep thanks bro I am using both ffof and ffhf found I needed to add ferts am now trying tiger bloom every other water. Will let you know how it works out going from maxi bloom and Koolbloom to this organic stuff. Peace sdd ps they are in 1 gl pots and under 400hps

 

[budelight]

When were you adding koolbloom and did you like it / did it work?

Thats good news for me sdd, it will deff help me see what would be possible if i used their nute lines. I'm growing under a vert 150w, tried to do a donut, but its more like a U because the door gets in the way.

With my most recent harvest of 4 plants, im hoping to get a zip from each, that would bring me to about .75 gpw (if anyone goes by this still)... thinking the last two sativas i pulled down yesterday may push me over the 1oz/plant average.

Peace & Pot,
BeL

 

[Payaso]

Excellent! I love comparison voting... get the real facts about a product this way.

 

[Hold Your Fire]

I've got some Chronic in straight Happy Frog right now.

Using MaxiBloom nutes. Plants seem to love it.

I get bales of it for $15.

Nice price!

 

[Crooked8]

Bude KoolBloom (all ive used was the powder) does work but it can burn your plants so light doses are required. I prefer MOAB. As for soil, people still have great success with FFOF but you have to water at 6.8 ph. Go in at 6.8 and shoot for 6.4 runoff. Happy frog is okay too. Id suggest a 2-1 ratio of two bags ffof to one bag of light warrior. Better aeration.

 

[The OrigF/clred]

i'm still learning, watching my bud's grow so figured i'd get that out there first

he just started using happy frog about 3-4 weeks ago - first thing he found was a high percentage or volume of wood chips. Then a frigging infestation of frigging fungus gnats. I suppose that could happen with any composted soil.

But his biggest complaint is the ph is frigging low, way low. He's been conditioning (or trying) the soil in each 2.5 gallon pot before he uses em, and by his accounting he's dumped about 3 healthy handfuls of quick acting lime in each pot and still has low ph - think the last dousing, 7.5 pH water went in and the run off measured 6.5 - first time he'd gotten the run off above 6.3, but still, 7.5 in/6.5 out means the soil's pH is somewhere south of 6.0

don't think i'll be using it when if/when i start a grow

fwiw

 

[The OrigF/clred]

forgot, he'd also put some epsom salt in (magnesium) and that generally sweetens or raises the pH as well. The quick acting lime bag said generally 1 tblspoon per 6" of pot, so 2 tablespoons should have been somewhere enough

 

[budelight]

I wonder if anyone knows...

Will the perlite which I add to their the mix affect the pH of my soil the same way adding lime would?

Thanks for everyone chiming in
BeL

 

[Avinash.miles]

no option for me really; i can't even vote, used ffof once, was just ok with it, coulda done better in happy frog if i wanted to go right out the box.
light warrior is ok for clones & seedlings

I don't use happy frog but the other three together. Moonshine mix. There's a thread.

hank;
im guessing you are talking about this one:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?threadid=23970

 

[Yesca73]

have used ocean Forest with Gh floraNova with good results
use light warrior for seedlings and clones works good and will still buy

 

[Hold Your Fire]

I wonder if anyone knows...

Will the perlite which I add to their the mix affect the pH of my soil the same way adding lime would?

http://www.perlite.net/

 

[AlterEgo860]

no soil from foxfarms... the nutes are ok.. but deff not organic.

 

[growing303]

I have had amazing results with "ocean forrest" and perlite at 75/25. in fact in outdoor (water only no nutrients) ocean forrest did only marginally worse then subcool super soil. (keep in mind super soil+water kicks ass outdoors)

 

[dank.frank]

Best Fox Farm mix I have ever seen put to use was derived from Blazeoneup's mix - and is simply what I call Phillthy's mix as a result. I know Phillthy has changed things up a bit since this original formulation, but it is a GREAT starting point for many growers looking for something affordable, simply and easy to maintain...and it works. Certainly there are ways to make it better, but, this simple mix produces flowers that will best 90% of what is currently out there...when used in a dialed environment, that is, of course.

1 bag FFOF
1/2 bale Pro-Mix Bx
5 gallons Chunky Perlite
1 cup bone meal
1 cup blood meal
1 cup dolomite lime
1 cup EWC

Quick simple changes to improve upon that mix:

1 cup Kelp meal
1/2 bag EWC (25 pound bag, roughly 3 gallons) instead of just a single cup
3 TBSP BioVam from T & J Enterprises (or Vam Endo mix from BioAg)

These changes make the mix much better if you chose to re-use your soil vs tossing it and mixing new each time:

1 cup Oyster Shell Flower (in place of the dolomite limestone)
5 gallons Permatill (in place of the chunky perlite)
1 cup Leonardite (Hum-Amend from TeraVita)


Anyway - mix these things together, and just add water the entire cycle - same mix for veg and flower - but again, these are just simple, affordable, suggestions - the simplest version, without my suggested alterations works very well and produces great flowers.

If you want to use bottled nutrients in addition to the base mix, I'd suggest:

Budswel - (yellow label - liquid) @ 2 TBSP per gallon during week 3 and 5 - twice each week, 3 days apart
General Organics Cal/Mg - @ 1/2 tsp per gallon to fight of Cal/Mg def that may appear in some strains, usually once during week 3 and 4
Thrive Alive B1 (green label) @ 1/2 tsp per gallon twice during the first week after transplant, and placed into flower, 3 days apart
Earth Juice Meta-K - @ 1 TBSP per gallon ONCE a week at the beginning of week 3 and 5
Botanicare Liquid Karma - @ 1 tsp per gallon twice during week 1 and 2; 3 days a part, and 1 TBSP per gallon twice a week during week 3 and 5, also 3 days apart

These are my generic recommendations for people who shop a hydro store and don't have a ton of experience mixing there own soils. The reason for listing the different bottled nutrients is for people who want to push their plants or are familiar with various deficiencies and want to know how to prevent them before they have a drastic effect on overall health and thus production.

This isn't even how I grow, specifically - or how Phillthy gets it done - but I know if you follow these basic instructions, you will get GREAT flowers. These instructions represent a great starting point for new growers without making the whole process overly difficult.

Hope this helps!



dank.Frank

 

[Hank Hemp]

I like the second version the best.