Why is Fox Farm soil SOOO Acidic??

[No3odiesShad0w]

Update***

So it's looking like the soil is finally within range. The plants are blooming and look healthy. Now just to keep to a watering schedule and things should be good. I planted 4 more seeds in different combinations of soil and perlite. We'll see as we go what happens.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Looking like the pH issues cleared up nicely and it's smooth sailing going forward!

[No3odiesShad0w]

All 4 babies sprouted of the auto Northern lights. So far 100% germination rate with these seeds from seedsupreme.
with these 4 i decided to mess around with soil, perlite ratios. Also messing with the autoflower soil from Nature's Living Soil. Living Soil technique. 2.7oz/gallon 1 gallon buckets with 30% perlite mix. Center for seeds 50/50 soil/perlite mix
1. Espoma 30% perlite (back left) 2. Espoma 50% perlite (back right)
3. 50/50 Espoma/ Fox Farm (front left)
4. Fox farm/perlite (front right)

[No3odiesShad0w]

Looks like the Espoma and Fox Farm mixes are doing the best so far but to early to tell.

[No3odiesShad0w]

As you can see, the plant that had the most soil pH issues is doing the worst despite growing about 6 inches taller than it's sister plant. The leaves are super droopy probably due to all the pH fluctuations. Now I'm not sure if it's acidic or basic. I haven't pH'd the soil in a 2 weeks. I don't want to water log it. It's possible it has root rot. The stems are red so there's def problems with nutrients.
Meanwhile the other plant is doing great. In color, height and flower development it's more or less on track. The leaves on the bottom are yellowing but that's too be expected.

All 4 of the babies are doing great! They're on day 12 and they're all between 3-4 inches. I don't think the autos like the Espoma soil by itself. Seems very.... Heavy and dense despite the perlite but they still look healthy either way.

Week 9 will be November 16 so I'm expecting the flower growth to really ramp up in the next 2 weeks. I have them a teaspoon of some flower boosting top dress

Next soil I'm going to try is roots organics. ... Still trying to find a soil that i like

[3Berries]

My last photo grow was one Happy Frog and the other Ocean Forest. Both suffered in flowering from some sort of nute issue, the Ocean Forest the worst. (maybe light related) Though both gave out a good harvest quantity wise. I have an auto in Ocean Forest now that I amended quite a bit. Added perlite, limestone and a bit of langbeinite. So far so good on that one. Just starting to flower. It was a bit rough starting out. Next auto grow is starting with a solo cup core of the ProMix with the rest the Ocean Forest.

[No3odiesShad0w]

3Berries. Everyone's been saying that all the Fox Farm soil formulas have changed. The ocean forest is hotter than it's been in the past. The happy frog is a lot more acidic than it's been in the past. Not sure what's going on with them. The plants still seem to like the Fox Farm soil over the Espoma it seems (well once the acidity issue is addressed). Seems like the Espoma is very dense and pH is around 7. The perlite helps a lot. I still want to try a few other soils. Still haven't found the one i like best. I heard great things about Roots Organic. I wanna try that one next. Amend the soil with guano, castings, fish bone, fungus, etc etc to make a nice light living soil.

Do you use liquid nutes in the Ocean Forest or do you transplant into something like strawberry fields for bloom?

[3Berries]

3Berries. Everyone's been saying that all the Fox Farm soil formulas have changed. The ocean forest is hotter than it's been in the past. The happy frog is a lot more acidic than it's been in the past. Not sure what's going on with them. The plants still seem to like the Fox Farm soil over the Espoma it seems (well once the acidity issue is addressed). Seems like the Espoma is very dense and pH is around 7. The perlite helps a lot. I still want to try a few other soils. Still haven't found the one i like best. I heard great things about Roots Organic. I wanna try that one next. Amend the soil with guano, castings, fish bone, fungus, etc etc to make a nice light living soil.

Do you use liquid nutes in the Ocean Forest or do you transplant into something like strawberry fields for bloom?

The Fox Farm soils I'm using up with my autos. Don't plant on going back to them for photos. I use Miracle Grow soluble for NPK nutes. One for veg and one for Bloom. KCO3 for pH up, a bit of Epsom salt and well/rain water for my calcium. Once in a while some CaCl for a straight shot of Ca++. But not much nutes are needed in the Fox Farm soils. I have gone to ProMix Bx which basically has little to no nutes so it fits my style and nutes better. Got some about half way through flower and showing some nute deficiency/light stress as I'm only giving nutes when it is showing deficiency and they really do not need watered but once a week or so. I have to be careful.

[No3odiesShad0w]

You know..... I have HUGE bottles of the General Hydroponics line of nutes. I got them for basically nothing..... I tried using them a while back and honestly.... Had no idea what i was doing it was a disaster 😅. In my garden i always grew with compost so all the feeding schedules and pH adjustment with the ph up and down was all such a pain in the ass. I put the nutes away and just started compost growing and never looked back....... Buuuuuuuuuttt ...... With all this fun experimenting and all the knowledge I've gained, I've been considering maybe giving them a try. Do a side by side compost vs liquid nutes. I know ppl have done that already but i haven't and would be super fun to do.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Now i only do a top dress of compost and molasses during bloom and I've been getting amazing results. I try to keep it simple. I mean the compost is super complex but the grow itself is a piece of cake.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Update We're on week 7 for bloom and on week 2 (not counting the first week of germination) for the babies

One of the plants is in full bloom..... At the beginning of week 7, she's looking really good. Plenty of growth in the next week and at this pace she's going to be big.... Some pH issues but much better than droopy....... Droopy on the other hand is a lot less droopy looking. The leaves perked up a bit after i did a light flush to get rid of that baking soda. Not expecting anything from it so I'm going to use it for some water testing.

The babies are just coming up on week 2 and they're big!! One has a bit of nitrogen toxicity it looks like but it will be okay. The new leaves look fine. The rest are coming along and will be starting some LST on these to get those yields up a bit 😀👍.
Some decent genetics from seedsupreme I'm pleased with them.
I'm thinking of getting the Auto Super Mix pack from ILGM. Comes with GG4, GSC and Bruce Banner. All 3 favorites of mine and I'm loving growing autos.

Out of the 4 babies 1 is doing the poorest and that's the one in just Fox Farm happy frog. The leaves look like it has nitrogen toxicity or wind burn or acidic soil..... My guess acidic soil the ones in the Espoma and the various espoma/fox farm mixes are doing much better. The ones with the FF as seed starter and Espoma as the main soil are doing much better than the other way around.

This is turning out too be a really fun experiment both with soils and ratios but also water.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Removed the dry yellow leaves and maybe 1 or 2 fan leaves from the top to uncover some flower spots and that's it. No more touching until harvest. Wednesday is week 7 so 2-3 weeks more until harvest.

[3Berries]

I watered mine to run off yesterday and the pH came out at 6.8. I did use some limestone in the mix from the start and usually use 7.0 to water with.

[No3odiesShad0w]

As long as the plants are happy then it's all good. I'm still trying to dial in what i got going on.

[No3odiesShad0w]

I watered the plants today and had a little run off so i decided to pH test it to see where i stand and to confirm some suspicions i had. Now i know which plants need lower pH or higher pH water to get them growing as best as they can.

[3Berries]

7My auto grow at 8 weeks is just now showing calcium deficiencies. I've been feeding full strength nutes for a couple weeks. I added a bit too much perlite as it needs watered twice a day at about a quart each time now. Anymore and it runs off. Moisture meter is always low, not pegged. I water with 6.8-7.0 but seldom to run off. Last time I did the run off was 6.8.

I never fully saturated the whole pot till about 6 weeks. The run off is so good pH wise I reused it.

Ocean Forest in 3.5 gal pot. 1 cup DS Lime, 1 qt perlite

[No3odiesShad0w]

My next run in gonna do it without the fox farm soil. I keep having acidity issues with it. I'm gonna use the Espoma and i use the acidic water from the Brita filters. That should give it the perfect pH. That's been my biggest struggle. Soil pH. But i think i understand the problem and how to fix it. Next ones in going to grow in a 2 or 3 gallon bucket now that i feel more confident about what I'm doing.

[3Berries]

I don't think just using pH water will help keep Ocean Forest at the pH water level. It needs more limestone or other buffer. Wood ash?

[No3odiesShad0w]

I'm not sure. I never used Ocean Forest before. Tbh i never even read the ingredient list for it. I'm using Happy Frog. The last 2 grows i also used FF Happy Frog and also had soil acidity issues. Back then i didn't know that Brita filters made the waters so acidic and i didn't have a pH meter.
I'm still having soil acidity issues but it's only in one of the plants. 2 of the plants in the Espoma soil actually have pH of 7.3 so i need to get that down. While raising the one of the FF soil.
I'm just not sure why my main one stopped growing. No new flowers no noticable changes but not showing any kind of issues either. Looking healthy considering it has maybe a week or 2 before harvest