Just sharing in case it helps someone else shorten the trial-and-error phase.
I’ve been running FoxFarm nutrients for a while now and, like a lot of people, I’ve gone through a lot of experimenting with them over multiple grows. I wanted to share a few observations I’ve personally noticed over time, in case it helps anyone deciding how much of the FF line they really need.
1. The Core Trio Does the Heavy Lifting
For me, the biggest gains have always come from:
Grow Big
Big Bloom
Tiger Bloom
Those three alone, when dialed in correctly, have produced healthy plants, solid structure, and good yields. Everything else seems more like fine-tuning rather than necessities.
2. Less Is Usually More With FoxFarm
One thing I learned the hard way is that FoxFarm feeds can stack up fast. Running them lighter than the chart — especially Grow Big and Tiger Bloom — has consistently given me better results than following the schedule aggressively.
Signs I’d see when pushing too hard
leaf tip burn
clawing
darker-than-needed foliage
Backing off almost always corrected things.
3. Additives Can Help — But They’re Not Magic
Products like:
Open Sesame / Beastie Bloomz / Cha Ching
Kelp products
Microbe supplements
These products can help in certain situations, but I haven’t seen them transform a grow on their own. When my base feeding was already dialed in, additives sometimes gave a small boost. When it wasn’t, they didn’t fix anything.
4. Cal-Mag Matters More Than Most Additives
One thing that did make a consistent difference for me was proper calcium and magnesium support, especially under LEDs and in fast-draining media. Many of the issues I originally blamed on nutrients ended up being Ca/Mg (Calcium / Magnesium) related.
5. Environment Beats Bottles
Lighting, airflow, watering habits, and pH stability had a much bigger impact on my outcomes than adding more bottles ever did. Once those were stable, the FoxFarm trio worked just fine without needing the entire lineup.
What I’ve Noticed Over Time:
For anyone running FoxFarm: you don’t need every product to get good results. In my experience, dialing in the basics and feeding lighter has gone further than chasing every supplement on the shelf.
When I keep things simpler and focus on:
proper environment consistent feeding dialing in timing rather than stacking products
the plants tend to respond better overall. That doesn’t mean the extra products are useless — just that they’re more situational tools than must-haves. For my grow, I’ve found better results by understanding when and why to use something rather than running the full lineup by default.
Curious what others have noticed when simplifying vs stacking — always interested in hearing different approaches.
I use a mix of that with mushroom compost, FF Happy Frog, Ocean Forest, Strawberry Fields & Espoma’s Lobster mix. Makes for a good hot soil to where I don’t have to add any additional nutes until later in the veg stage of my grow.
One thing I’ve learned with Ocean Forrest, is that if its the bottom half of your pot (2.5 gal in your case) is OF, and the top 1.5 trade gallons is Fox Farm Happy Frog, then the seedling stage and veg do great for 30 days with just water.
Less for photos ofc.
Just my own observation. I love the FF line.
I’m not flushing either. I’ll dial back a bit but I’ve read too many scientific proofs that the only notable difference was the saving in cost of 14 days of nutes
I just feel like after all I’ve read and been told by guys here, I’ma just dial back
Awesome happy you did his writing, I to use ff happy frog and the three plus cal/mag. I may pick your brain in day or so if you don’t mind, maybe you can give DW pointers on your experience with ff. I’ll
Tag you if you don’t mind on my grow.
Thanks, happy growing.
I don’t know if there’s much to pick but I can definitely let you know what stuff worked for me based on my own personal experiences. It is super easy to be too gung ho when ya start growing. We buy way too much stuff we either think we need (at that time) OR you got talked into buying it at some brick & mortar Good luck & happy growing!!!
Thanks for taking the time to post. Talk about timing.
I’m just getting ready to start my journey in soil w/ the O. Forest/H. Frog layering as mentioned above. I happen to have the FF Trio I bought last year on a whim to play w/ in the garden (it was on sale $20!!! and I got the last one).
The wealth of knowledge and abundance of helpful posters here is awesome.
WELCOME & g’luck on your grow!!! I’ve been on this forum for quite a few years & you are absolutely right, everyone is so helpful w’their knowledge!!! The patience & willingness to help that everyone had in here when I 1st started growing was AWESOME!!! You have definitely hit gold w’this site!!!
Again welcome & HAPPY GROWING!!!
Yo! Aye you like the auto pot better?
I’m thinking of the spider farmer 4 pot set with resivor for 99 bucks.
I’m gonna break down and get all this equipment slowly, to build one final grow space. Starting in a new tent , while I build my room.
I keep seeing Auto pots.
Hmu
Just sharing in case it helps someone else shorten the trial-and-error phase.
1. The Core Trio Does the Heavy Lifting
Grow Big
leaf tip burn
Backing off almost always corrected things.
Open Sesame / Beastie Bloomz / Cha Ching
What I’ve Noticed Over Time:
For anyone running FoxFarm: you don’t need every product to get good results. In my experience, dialing in the basics and feeding lighter has gone further than chasing every supplement on the shelf.
proper environment
GOOD LUCK & HAPPY GROWING!!! 
I don’t know if there’s much to pick but I can definitely let you know what stuff worked for me based on my own personal experiences. It is super easy to be too gung ho when ya start growing. We buy way too much stuff we either think we need (at that time) OR you got talked into buying it at some brick & mortar