FoxFarms Soil Low pH answers

Grow Equipment Grow Mediums
1

I contacted FF and let them know their soil was becoming bad for cannabis growers based on pH being out of range and super high ppm’s out of the bag. below was copy and pasted from their reply.
Thank you for contacting FoxFarm! I am happy to help!

Soil slurries provide a pH of the slurry, not the soil, and are used as an indicator of the soil pH. The soil slurry pH will be more acidic than the actual soil pH, which is to be expected. We recommend two slurries:

• A 1:1 slurry – mix 1 part soil to 1 part distilled water (by volume)

• A 1:5 slurry - mix 1 part soil to 5 parts distilled water (by volume)

• Thoroughly mix these slurries and allow them to sit for about 15 minutes

• Next, check the pH of the slurry with litmus paper, liquid indicator dye, or a digital pH meter

• The 1:1 slurry of Happy Frog Potting Soil should have a pH of 5.0-6.3

• The 1:5 slurry of Happy Frog Potting Soil should have a pH of 5.6-6.6

• The 1:1 slurry of Ocean Forest Potting Soil should have a pH of 5.0-6.2

• The 1:5 slurry of Ocean Forest Potting Soil should have a pH of 5.6-6.7

• The 1:1 slurry of Coco Loco Potting Mix should have a pH of 5.4-6.3

The 1:5 slurry of Coco Loco Potting Mix should have a pH of 6.0-6.7

• The 1:1 slurry of Strawberry Fields Potting Soil should have a pH of 5.20-6.70

The 1:5 slurry of Strawberry Fields Potting Soil should have a pH of 6.00-7.00

• If pH values of the slurries are in the ranges provided above, you can assume that the pH of your soil is in the 6.3-6.8 range

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2

That is good info. That needs to be seen by everyone.

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3

I solved all of my issues with FF soils by usung Roots Organic original blend instead. It’s not quite as easily found but it’s about the same price and has been way more consistent than anything from FF.

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4

Some pretty large ranges :love_you_gesture:

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5

Same for me. I also use the Roots Organic dry nutrient line.

Edit: In our case, the Roots Organic is super cheap because we live near the factory and a grow shop affiliated with them. I get 3 cu. ft. bags for $18.

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Yes, I figured since I was one with some bad batches and I have seen many others recently I would email em and say to QC their stuff a bit better as they are no longer being a recommended soil and alot of folks are/were having issues and I made the switch to Coco as a result of their swings in quality. Mostly just feedback from a customer and wasn’t expecting a reply.

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7

So if I stick a calibrated Blue labs pH probe in the soil and it measures 5.6 what’s their excuse for that?

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8

I can’t believe the slurry ranges they stated particularly for soil :love_you_gesture:

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The only numbers that matter are our bottom line. So shut up and buy our product and assume you’re good. -FF

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10

Same here. Made the switch for my current grow and wow! Night and day.

Thats a great deal wow!! Thought i was doing good at $22 for the 1.5cu ft from our closest grow shop. Still a much better price than amazon and the ff soils.

That said, when my last grow in the FFOF/HF was going to hell, @spankyjr1 got me back on track with his resolution to the ff ph issue. Basically stop phing lol. If your feed water after nutes reads 8.0ph just feed it without adjusting ph. Not sure why it works but it did :man_shrugging:
:sign_of_the_horns::sign_of_the_horns::victory_hand:

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11

Yep, just buy my dirt and don’t worry about the PH…WTF. I will say I’ve used the Coco Loco on and off for over 5 years and it’s been pretty consistent at least for bottom feeding wicking systems :love_you_gesture:

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12

They got where they are from forums like this one. Now it’s up to us to make their bottom line hurt before they will act. I know I stopped recommending their products.
I did like and use the Strawberry Fields many years ago.

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13

Winner winner…:love_you_gesture:

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14

I did the same thing 4-1/2 years ago (I’ve been growing in their soil for 5-1/2 years)

Mama told me not to be a quitter, figure it out, so I did

stop ph-ing your feed/watering,
FF soils have dolomite lime already in them to stabilize the soil PH, if you do PH your water/feed in FF soils you will have nothing but problems once you reach the flowering stage (you’re basically fighting the lime by lowering PH)

Every time I bring it up around here the keyboard warriors disagree, and I don’t have time to explain it to them and certainly don’t want to waste my time arguing with them

The FF soils are lacking in cal and mag so use them on water days or once a week (cal-mag)
They are also lacking in potassium phosphate so start adding that a week before flowering for 2-3 wks then back to regular feed (I use jacks 321 calmag and greenway potassium phosphate 0-52-34) along with microbes and their feed

Thanks for taking the time @Bonjoyle FF was not much help when I called

If you have questions or problems in FF soils, check out my journal I would be happy to help out if I can
click here

Good luck everyone no matter what path you choose :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

Thanks for the tag brother I appreciate you! :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

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15

sorry I put the wrong link in for my journal
click here

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16

That’s what I thought, how can a slurry be 5.0-6.3 and the soil be 6.3-6.8?

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17

I would say definitely don’t ph in flower using tiger bloom. The tiger bloom alone brings my ph from 7.5 to 6.5

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