Bought new bag o ffhf today. Mixed it with 3 to 1 with perlite And about 1/4 cup of lime for a 5 gallon pot. For shits and giggles I ph’d a gallon of water to 6.8 and ran it through ph out was 5.3!! I know the pelletized lime will take a little to break down but 5.3 out of the bag? Plants won’t be ready for transplant for a few weeks at least so hopefully the lime will buffer the soil in time. I have fought ph issues with every grow. Maybe time to try something else but ffhf is readily available for me.
I’ve been around here for 4 years and can recall a number of times when forum members get a bad bag of FF soil. I’ve never run into a problem myself, and I’ve always grown in Happy Frog, but it does happen occasionally.
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Flush it until it’s viable. Almost every bag of fox farm I’ve ever gotten has been off with either pH or nutrients. My last happy frog was 5.3 and over 7500 PPMs.
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Yeah we’ve seen alot of people freak out over runoff ph being low but plants never effected.
They proceeded to “fix it” then start actually having issues.
Idk how much I’d trust run-off to give me an accurate soil ph 
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If I was concerned, I’d do a good slurry test for more accurate results myself.
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I have never had a ph problem with coco.
just saying…
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Next time you get soil check if Mother Earth Coco Peat is available where you go. I’ve been using it for years now. I rarely ever check my runoff pH because I don’t have any issues, but when I do, it’s always in the 5.8 to 6.5 range. It’s great soil. You can go in with slightly lower pH than FF soils because it has a decent amount of coco in it. You can also water/feed slightly more often and worry less about over watering because of the coco in there. Even if the soil is completely saturated the coco is still giving the root zone oxygen. I think once more people see how good it works for growing cannabis it’s going to get way more popular.
Just don’t confuse it with Mother Earth Coco Perlite, unless you want to try growing in Coco. The names are very similar, and so are the bags, but the Coco Peat is a soil.
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I don’t even bother to PH my nutes with coco/autopots. No flushing either.
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Do you think the growing medium i.e. Coco vs. Soil affects the terpene production? Im just wondering whats your thoughts are? I have a couple plants going and the ones in coco are the biggest and look great! But the ones i did in soil look to be a bit more resinous and appears to have a few more trichomes. They are from seed so it very well could be different phenos. But it appears to be like that across the board. With all the soil plants being a bit smaller and having just a bit more frost. 
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I just finished 2 “accident” plants. 1 in coco and 1 in ffhf. Both the same strain from seed and honestly I didn’t take great care of either. The coco plant turned out way better than the soil in both quantity and quality. I know it’s not a fair comparison but it was pretty obvious. The coco plant had about 1/3 more harvest weight and had awesome super dense buds, the soil plant was a bit larfy. Both plants in the same conditions,same light
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I can not make that association one way or the other. I am thinking of four NL I grew in soil. One was noticeably more resinous and colorful than the others. Probably the most resinous strain I have grown was Purple Haze. They were grown in peat.
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I recently got in a bag of Happy Frog and pH the soil right out of the bag and was 4.7. Which made me think about the ocean Forest soil I just got two weeks prior. So I took some of the ocean Forest I did a pH slurry on the ocean forest and it was 5.1. No wonder my plants have been growing a little slow. I got in touch with Fox Farm and asked him about their soil and they just basically made excuses argued and said that their amendments inside the soil are working properly at that ph?? Just my little experience. Good luck and happy growing
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I check runoff and pH if something is wrong with my plant otherwise I would never check because all that matters is what goes in
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I know you didn’t ask me but from my experience soil buds are earthier and harder and coco buds were smoother and peppery. 2 of my own gsc clones
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Hydro, soil, soiless. There is no difference in terps, or potency. As long as you utilize the medium/solution the way you are suppose to. It’s a myth.
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I’ve found that genetics plays a bigger role in overall terpene production.
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Idk about that but I know the best visually stimulating plants to me are almost always in organic soil. So much so that I’m going to give it a try one day
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I get that. But it’s been proven. You just have to treat the soiless/hydro appropriately. It is what it is. Bro science myths are being broke down by Bugbee. Visuals come from genetics, phenos, and environment. The only difference in how to grow is medium preference and comfort. Not to mention drying and curing practices.
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I’ve did my own experiments whose going to prove to me what I observed?
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In a 100% controlled environment monitored 24 hours a day, with a staff to maintain pH, EC, PPFD, VPD, and trimming. With a plethora of growing mediums, it’s pretty hard to say they are wrong. With an open budget. Vs individuals growing at home. Maybe it just shows what you do better with. I’m not trying to argue, but it is what it is.
Edit
To expand, I intend on going organic eventually just because of the ease once you are dialed in. I still do not believe there is a difference in the final product. I am open to studies that show otherwise, but right now bugbee is the best we got and he is kind of the big shot of cultivation right now, in terms of what works. I rely on science. I’ve tested what I can, but none of it is on a large enough scale to prove anything.
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All I can say is the hydro grows around here are more visually appealing to me.
Hydro works better if you do it properly and it’s no secret, its just not for everyone. Some need the microbial life to do the work.
All nutrients are in the exact same form would the plant uses them and that isn’t an organic form as there is no such thing as “organic nutrients”, this is only organic sources. Lab turns the nutrients into a usable form or microbes turn it into a usable form, the plants can not tell any difference 
Only difference i see is my hydro grows yeild more but it’s just as potent and flavorful as the soil, only alot more of it. Thanks to Bugbee it’s all pretty easy to understand 
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