Fox Farm Ocean Forest

[baddog]

Picked up some Ocean Forest for $18.00 a bag for a 38 qt. bag so I bought some to start a third grow , was using Black Gold . I blended the Black Gold and Ocean Forest ( afraid of nitrogen burn ) for the seedlings and plan to switch to all Ocean Forest when I transplant to bigger fabric pots . Was using Dyna Gro (7-9-5 ) for the vegetative phase and then using Tiger Bloom in the flowering phase . The Ocean Forest is a hotter product , so any thoughts on a fertilizing schedule/product from those using Ocean Forest ?

[GreenhouseEffect]

I would skip the Black Gold and just use the Fox Farm. Th Black Gold has time release nutrients, and tends to cause problems with your grow, and throws off nutrient schedules.
That FFOF is not bad soil, though it does tend to have pest eggs in it, I have experienced this myself several times, plus some other folks have also, some people have been fine with it.
Ad some perlite to give your roots more oxygen. Ad some coco coir if you want to make it a little mellower for seedlings.

I pretty much just use stuff like earth worm castings and bat guano for my plants, but if you use bottled nutes, you will be better off using vedge and flower nutes from the same brand, since they are designed to go together. It's not completely organic, and will build up some salts in your soil, but that Tiger Bloom is pretty good stuff.

Somebody else will have to answer your question on when to start the Nute schedule with that ffof, but basically, if your plant starts to look hungry, feed her.

Best of luck with your grow!

[Chefbjy]

Ffof doesn't have bugs lol. You may have acquired them but there isn't bugs in it unless the store had infestations. Watering practices and pest prevention are key when using a perfect soil for them to live in. The nutrition will last up to 4weeks with fresh ffof.

No need to add nutes for that time...but calmag and humic acids won't hurt. You can use whatever nute line you want after that but it will hold onto a lot of those salts and I'd recommend a diluted solution of 1/4 strength of any feed charts. Ff recommends using their nute line with it though.

[Potted]

I use ffof soil amended with Peat moss,clean core,and vermiculite, I also use the ff trio but not thier feeding timelines,plants would never dry out if I did.
I always start my seeds in a jiffy pot with a good seed starter soil mix before introducing to the ffof amended soil by way of a transplant to forever homes.

[Toripony]

I tried to keep it simple and organic since I'm a rookie. I figure any storebought product needs amended so I made a mix of castings, compost, FFHF, coir plus 1/2 cup of alfalfa meal and 3/4 cup of bone meal (more of the same ingredients already in OF) and added that mix 1 to 6 parts of OF. Plants (WW, GG4) went in just before their first topping, no problems with burn. Topped pots with more alfalfa meal and then more bone meal during flowering. Plants did great but might have been waning just a little toward the end (12 weeks). After harvest I wasn't super impressed with the root ball so now I'm adding BioLive, tea (when possible) and molasses trying for more root growth. With my mix, I believe the nutes are in the soil (my 36" W Widows only used half of theirs to produce 2 oz/plant), just need to unlock more of it.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Toripony, you might want to add silica to your list, it does wonders for your plants, great for roots, make stems and branches really big an strong, makes plants less likely to get stress, from heat, or your lights, or anything that causes stress. Silica will help tremendously. Good Luck Toripony.

[Toripony]

Thanks, D.A.A.S., I'll try it. It makes sense to me that more/better roots would help a plant weather stresses better, just like a good foundation does for anything (including people).

[baddog]

Variety of ideas , I'm short on time and occasionally my GF takes care of them so I was trying to keep it as simple as I can . Thanks !

[Toripony]

I prefer simple, too. My ultimate goal is a garden that needs little daily attention and without an excess of technology or scientific knowledge.

[GreenhouseEffect]

If you can swing it money wise, Super Soil is hard to beat, pretty much just water every couple day's, and that's it.

You can also save that soil, same with the Fox Farm. Make yourself a worm bin, and get some California Red worms from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm.
At the end of each grow, toss the soil, roots, and chopped up plant stem in there, along with kitchen scraps such as egg shells and coffee grounds. You will have some nice soil to plant your next crop in after a couple months of just sitting there in the worm bin. Obviously, if you have a pest or disease problem, don't put the soil and plant leftovers in there. Nature has all this stuff pretty much dialed in after millions of years, just let the microbes, fungi, and earth worms take care of it for you. It doesn't work to good with fertilizer salts though, since they build up in the soil every time you feed, but if you use all organic materials, those will just improve your soil over time.

Well, there I go preachin' again, but somebody mentioned less work, technology,and scientific knowledge, so just do what nature does and be a little bit smart about it, and you don't have to deal with the ph, ppm, and all that stuff if you don't want to. If you like that style of growing, then go with it, nothin wrong with that either.

[Toripony]

Ok, now you have me thinking about a worm bin. Never thought of using it to recycle my soil. I hate throwing it out.

[starramus]

You can get free coffee grounds in bags from Starbucks. Just ask your favorite Barista. Howard Schultz has lots to get rid of.

[GreenhouseEffect]

Toripony, you can just buy a big plastic tote with a lid if you want to, then go ape $hit on it with a drill. Holes in the bottom and all along the sides, for ventilation. Read the Directions that Uncle Jim's worm Farm has posted on there site, for how to set it up, but you really don't need to buy a fancy worm bin, worms don't have eyes, and they won't care, just as long as you provide them with some very basic things for them to be alive and turn organic mater into high quality fertilizer. It really isn't much work at all.

[baddog]

I wish I had the time , but for now I'm trying to grow the best with the least amount of time rounding up products and trying to keep it simple to prevent screw ups .

[Toripony]

Just like GH said above, I pretty much just watered. The little bit of natural nutes I added was once a month. I vegged for 8 weeks so I only added nitrogen (alfalfa meal) once. I don't think it was quite enough though so I'm going to try adding Down To Earth Liquid Bloom formula (organic and includes a small ratio of N and cal/mag) every other week. Since FFOF is all organic, I am trying to avoid concentrates like Tiger Bloom. To me, it seems counter-productive to harm the good organisms already in the soil. Other than training, the plants took almost zero time/attention. However, I spent a lot of time studying/thinking/experimenting on how to control the environment (temp and humidity) because of the climate here and my closet is in the garage. Hopefully your garden is inside or in a nice sunny place.

[growingforanxiety]

i just had the biggest battle ever with root aphids, they destroyed my whole garden, i lost a few very expensive high end gentics, clone only plants that cant be replaced, ive never had these before ever, and had been running my strians for a few years without probs, i switched to FFOF and all of a sudden im over run by aphids, also to, this soil by week 5 of flower no longer drains properly, i wanted to try it out since its a large part of the cannabis community, but this was a serious lesson learned, i have ran Roots Orginal and 707 and have gotten gnats but nothing as destructive as FFOF, i have switched back to COCO, and am trying to run super coco, of my own recipe.....hopefully none of you guys have the same issues with FFOF soil....ive never had a problem with Canna coco or Promix

[starramus]

As careful as we are, and shit like this comes down the pipes! What a bitch.

[starramus]

I and another member Oldjarhead had problems with Happy Frog containing spider mites. Fortunately in my case it was not with my cannabis, but my wife's banana plants. The problem with her plants appears to be solved with heavy applications of Neem oil. Of course there are ventilation holes in the plastic bags, and I assume that is how the mites got in. Sounds like you took a terrible loss. Sorry about that, but all you can do is keep on jooglin.

[WeirdWiredWolf]

I've had problems with recent batches of FFOF containing some sort of mites--I'm convinced that was part of what killed my previous plants, these got infested too but I was able to stop it early--as well as drainage/PH issues. I've switched to Humboldt now.

[starramus]

Wow it's a jungle out there. Even the paranoid have real pest enemies. I thought about FFOF this grow, but stuck with Happy Frog, and have had nothing amiss.