On my first grow and currently using Fox Farm Ocean Forest with the Fox Farm nutrient trio, Grow Big, Big Bloom and Tiger Bloom. Ocean Forest was highly recommended but I am not happy with it. My runoff PH has been stuck at 5.5 and I had to do a major flush to get it to 6.2. It turned an otherwise healthy first grow into an issue with Phosphorous deficiency showing up in about week 2 of flowering.
I have no interest in growing in anything other than soil and will be growing autoflowers.
What are some recommendations for soil I can buy (not mix myself) and some nutes to go along with it. Thanks guys.
I use fox farm soil and nutes I started with happy frog added worm castings for my seedlings then went into ocean forest with a lot more worm castings. I’ve been Impressed with my results. I use the trio cal-mag and bembe.
My plant has grown well in the Ocean Forest. It is just the low PH which isn’t supposed to happen. It is supposed to be PH adjusted to 6.4 I believe. Have you checked your runoff PH and what is it? Another user told me FF sometimes has issues with PH being all over the place especially if it was stored improperly before it shipped (whatever that means).
Fox Farm Happy Frog is good for beginners and veteran growers as well.
I personally use FFOF as it rocks. Don’t need to add nutrients for 4 to 6 weeks after plant breaks soil. Now my nutrients is the following: FF Trio liquid and powder plus the Dirty Dozen with Wholly Mackerel and Kelp Me, Kelp You.
I do use molasses. I introduce it in flowering and feed it along with Urb (a microbe product) to help with nutrient uptake. The molasses helps feed the microbes.
@Dman1969@MidwestGuy@MrPeat It sounds like I was unfortunate enough to get a crap bag of Ocean Forest. Do you guys reuse your soil or use new soil for every grow?
I always reuse the soil till my Toilet Bowl Seeds as the soil is contaminated. When you reuse it, you will want to flush the salts out before planting. Also you will start adding nutrients in the first week after it breaks the surface.
@MrPeat@Dman1969@MidwestGuy It makes sense to me that if I reused my soil I would be starting with soil that is pretty much nute free and I wouldn’t have to worry about nutrient burn. I could use lime to get the PH right and not have to worry about deficiencies. I could use nutes from the beginning of the grow instead of having to guess when to start using them which really messes up the schedule. Does this sound like a good idea?
I use the FFOF and the ff treo/3 dry. Did have a ph/ overfeed issue last grow but with flush (as FF recomend/feed chart. Problem solved. You just need to pay attention with it imho. Cant complain about the results!
Yup…that will work. Once that soil is depleted of nutrients, you have to start adding immediately. But its worth it if you have the patience. And yea, you always have to worry about deficiencies.
