Fox Farm Problems need to switch asap

[Castelvetro]

iim a regular store/nursery bought soil kind of guy, of which i add castings n perlite n lime to, paying 20 bucks a bag for dirt seems very silly, but i have much respect for any dirt grown erb, its high is always longer lasting n deeper, u just cant put life in a bottle but u can try.

 

[chemdd]

my foxfarm soil is great; prob got switched out soil.

 

[Knives]

Fox Farm soil's are beast. I have a perlite/ocean forest/light warrior mix going that has everything you need when mixed properly. Yes, they do come with small sticks and sorts..but thats half the fun when you grow soil. I fed my plants thrice last harvest, twice in veg, once in bloom using pro-blend organics...they couldnt have tasted any sweeter. Each grower has his method of choice...same goes for each method. sunshine or foxfarm? really makes no difference when grown with love and care. grow on!

 

[Absolut]

I just started a grow using MSMix (1bag Ocean Forest, 1 Light Warrior, 1 Planting mix, ~3 cups powdered dolomite lime). Haven't had any problems yet, but I'm only vegging right now. Don't have any gnats or fungus growing. The FF soil I get is from CA, not the east coast mix. Most of the complaints I read is from east coasters but don't quote me on it.

 

[Admiral Canna]

If the distributor the hydro store uses or the hydro store itself doesn't have good storage for the OF, then it can get exposed to the elements. Then it basically becomes no better than Home Depot potting soil. Wet, gnats...etc.

I have used FFOF for about 5 years now. I think its different now too. Not as quality.

A bale or two of ProMix is a beautiful thing. I mix some EWC in with my ProMix and off I go.

Scrap that 20 dollar a bag soil and run with ProMix or Sunshine #4......can't go wrong.

ProMix has NO nutes in it (for those that don't know) but yes, that is a control factor. You control it. Be on top of your feedings and you and your plants will be very happy.

 

[Matanuskan Flo]

Y*A*W*N

That's the best you can up with? Seriously?

I have over 2,400 posts and almost 900 rep points and I'm a troll?

Are you serious? Or just stupid?

Almost curious. Almost.

CC

haha, why even entertain this clown CC?? the people who matter know who u are, yourself & other experienced (expert, if i may) UC members included. I know you are a far from a troll, rather the exact antithesis thereof. i just couldn;t include myself in the expert IC member category, yet....but, with more knowledge dropped by you & a few others like you, I am getting there my friend. Thanks for putting up with deuches & your contributions to the community.

I have used many mediums, i used to mix my own soil & spend more than a normal bag of FFOF, HF, or LW. i got lazy & tried other more simple methods, promix w. vermiculite, jungle growth organic w/ perlite etc etc. for last 2 yrs, ive used only FF soils. i always have ocean forest, frog & LW. I always mix all of them together, more LW & frog than OF, along with vermy & quite rarely, EWCs. my most recent purchase of FFOF, may have had gnats. but, i firmly believe any & or all issues with FF soil products lay within the distributor side of the business. whether in transit or in storage upon purchase from the hydro shop or any distributor. most stores just stack bags on the ground or in areas not effectively/properly/sufficiently sealed off from pests enough. so, sometimes gnats may arise. as far as the east coast operation using diff pine bark than redwood, i see no real issue in that aspect. FF is a large company w/ enuf funding to research the different affects of the 2 barks. i am sure the resulting differences are minuscule in terms of final outcome/output nute wise & so on. IMO, i just sunconsciously feel anything grown in the Cali area is better than the east coast, i dont know why, but i do. i think this general sentiment is somewhat valid based on famous west coast grows & strains etc, but conversely, the actual evidence or validity to the widely held opinion is somewhat baseless, IMO....im sure the east coast can provide the same level & inclusion of nutes & qualities that the West siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide boys have been churning out. so, long story short, i still love me some FF for being lazy & just simply mixing, filling up a pot, & throwing anything in there & then consistently cultivating chronic colas w/ copious crystals......

 

[gingerale]

thanks for the input MF. im in the dirty south using the east coast mix. it does have a brown tinge like the pics show, but its a quality soil. the local hydro shop keeps it indoors up on a pallet, nice and dry. they have pro-mix too but it's like $32 a bag, ridiculous. i dont know where else i can get it around here and im not payin that much for pro-mix when theres fox farm next to it for $20. personally i think the FFOF by itself is too light and airy, dusty even when dry, which is prob why you use less of it, but that happy frog is the bomb, and they complement each other well in a mix. i just now got a few bags of LW too but havent even checked it out yet. the happy frog ferts are good too, i use the standard 5-5-5 stuff at half strength, from seed all the way through flower no prob, no nute or ph problems ever. ph stays at 6.6-6.8 the whole grow. if its under fertilized i cant tell, theres nugs the size of my fist and still got a week left. its fantastic soil and im inclined to believe the possibility of isolated problems at the distributor level.

 

[CalcioErba2004]

Used FFOF back in the day and never really liked it. My brother swears by it and so does my boy AlexanderS. I have seen some great buds grown in FFOF so I am not knocking it.

Name it I have used it. FFOF, Light Warrior, Promix BX, FF EWCs, FF Marine Cuisine, guanos and teas and a crapload of nute lines. I even raised my own worms and got my own EWCs for my mixes. I have used aquarium water for watering, tapwater and RO water. Still like growing in coco soils. Been using the Royal Gold Loose Coco and their Mendo Mix. 8 parts(big double handful) coco, 7 parts mendo mix,I mix in 8 red beer cups of coarse perlite, 4 red beer cups of hydroton balls, 8 tbsp. high N bat guano, 4 tbsp. glacial rock dust and 8 tbsp. fossilized seabird guano. This is the base mix. I top dress my vegging plants with 2 parts mendo mix, 4 tbsp. high N bat guano, 1 tbsp. glacial rock dust and 2 tbsp. fossilized seabird guano and 2 beer cups of coarse perlite. For flowering I switch to 4 tbsp. fossilized seabird guano and 2 tbsp. high N bat guano and everything else stays the same.

I wonder if the east coast mix is suppose to be for a more humid environment...we didn't have that shit when I lived there. Had the good old heavy bag full of ECWs that drowned plants.

 

[gingerale]

it does drain fast. i mixed some clay in with some batches i mixed, put a bit too much in though. oh yeah, lol, i got the clay out of this cheap ass potting mix wal-mart sells that was advertised for sprouting plants. i ripped open the bag and found what was pretty much straight clay combined with big ass sticks and rocks. i mean there was even big balls of pure clay, you could have fired pottery out of this shit. it wasnt even a dark rich clay, it was light grey, leached of minerals. what a joke as a potting soil let alone for sprouting seeds. works good for mixing in to add a little more "stickiness" to FFOF though. i used 20% by vol and it was too much, 5-10% prob would work great.

 

[Seafrost]

I don't mind fox farm ocean forest for my mothers. Have never had any issues.

 

[hkush]

I've used promix before, and had no complaints. Using something just like it now called Baccto because the nursery stopped having Promix.

 

[medicineman420]

I am using Roots Organics soils and my plants love it , from seedlings to cuttings through flower . You can see the quality in this brand

I have used FFOF for most of my plants and I found it to be very nice soil. I have not noticed any decline in quality. My girls just love it. I've used it for seedlings and it definately was not too "hot". Same with freshly transplanted clones. They did just fine with it. Recently, I had some plants which I had in 5 inch pots as seedlings. They were in FFOF and grew so rapidly that they quickly became root bound and nitrogen deficient. I had to transplant them quickly to prevent permanent harm. The hydroponics store I use was all out of FFOF. The owner convinced me to buy Roots Organics (like the bag in your picture) instead and gave me deal on it since he was out of what I wanted. I transplanted seven plants into five gallon pots with Roots Organics Soil. Now I have a major outbreak of fungus gnats spreading to all my plants. The Roots Organics soil was filled with lots and lots of old roots, sticks, clods and little rocks. It really looked like crap. The thing that bothered me the most, though, was it had some kind of little spines or stickers in it that stuck in the skin on my hands like little cactus needles. It was very irritating to my skin and took several days to clear up. I really didn't like that. If I ever use that brand of soil again, I'll be sure to wear gloves whenever I'm handling it. The plants seem to be doing just as well in the Roots Organics soil as my other plants in FFOF. The real bitch is the fungus gnats which are spreading explosively. It seems evident that the Roots Organics soil must have had LOTS of eggs in it. There are little gnats flying all around the house now.

 

[reckon]

I have used FFOF for most of my plants and I found it to be very nice soil. I have not noticed any decline in quality. My girls just love it. I've used it for seedlings and it definately was not too "hot". Same with freshly transplanted clones. They did just fine with it. Recently, I had some plants which I had in 5 inch pots as seedlings. They were in FFOF and grew so rapidly that they quickly became root bound and nitrogen deficient. I had to transplant them quickly to prevent permanent harm. The hydroponics store I use was all out of FFOF. The owner convinced me to buy Roots Organics (like the bag in your picture) instead and gave me deal on it since he was out of what I wanted. I transplanted seven plants into five gallon pots with Roots Organics Soil. Now I have a major outbreak of fungus gnats spreading to all my plants. The Roots Organics soil was filled with lots and lots of old roots, sticks, clods and little rocks. It really looked like crap. The thing that bothered me the most, though, was it had some kind of little spines or stickers in it that stuck in the skin on my hands like little cactus needles. It was very irritating to my skin and took several days to clear up. I really didn't like that. If I ever use that brand of soil again, I'll be sure to wear gloves whenever I'm handling it. The plants seem to be doing just as well in the Roots Organics soil as my other plants in FFOF. The real bitch is the fungus gnats which are spreading explosively. It seems evident that the Roots Organics soil must have had LOTS of eggs in it. There are little gnats flying all around the house now.

I hate fungus gnats, like I could go on a fungus gnat hunt like woodie harrelson in ZOMBIELAND,....I would vote to have fungus gnats removed from the planet, but doing that would just fuck up something else,......I have also had gnats, and I feel your pain.

MOSQUITO DUNKS,....just crumble em up and place the broken bits on top of the soil, and water like normal, I used to use several different methods, but the DUNKS WORK, and they WORK WELL.
Also put a few cups of water in a small bowl or bucket with the dunks crumbled up in it, the gnats seem to like that more than the plants and will go in, get soaked with the dunks, and die.

your hydro store is TOTALLY to blame about the bugs in that roots soil, they probably store it outside, and the lil fuckers crawl in the vent holes, and set up shop, just WAITING for you, mr. unsuspecting grower to take em home,.....TELL your hydro store "I got fungus gnats from that last sack of soil you sold me, make sure you guys DO SOMETHING about that",....but make sure you TELL THEM,...they may not even realize it.

you might also look for another store/seller that takes better care of their products.

I have heard great things about roots organics soil, so much in fact, I have 4 bags of it right now, and I'm blending it with other goodies and planting today, and I did NOT notice the "stickers" you mentioned in my bags, and I mix the soil with my bare hands (reminds me of when I was a kid, playing in the sandbox)

so, like Fox Farm, I bet they use several different "soil blending companies" and the bags vary from store to store across the USA/world.

if this shit keeps up with soil companies lowering standards and RAISING prices, I'll go to COCO, which is a PITA,...but works really well.

 

[medmaker420]

I am sick of FFOF myself and my plants apparently are as well. Fungus gnats like a mother fucker and it pisses me off. That soil isn't cheap and seeing bugs in soil pisses me off more than seeing bugs on a clone. At least with clones, I can inspect them.

Switching to promix hp IF my grow shop has it BUT until I see fox farms either acknowledge OR if it is the grow shops error (puttin them outside, getting bugs due to how they store the soil and so on) then they need to put them in check because they are losing business due to the bug problems.

When I first got started I swore by fox farms soil but that was years ago and things change and not always for the better.

I was gunna go with

pro mix hp
ewc
perlite
dolomite lime

and see how they do

 

[CANNATOPIA]

I run all fox Farm Products & love them. Never ever had a problem.

 

[ericcalif]

Just my noob $.02... I've been using happy frog and im... happy.
The local hydro shop thieves want $20 a bag too, the small chain home center charges $12. I too get a few gnats but use these little sticky pieces of cardboard that catches them all without chemicals and they were cheap. I'm not growing for money, quite happy with 4-5 oz per run in a 6 sq foot cabinet.
You can make it complicated or keep it simple. For me, more simple = more fun.

But you know, back to the original posters question, I can't speak for the alternatives but, I've had none of those problems. I don't feed seedlings or clones. I let them get established nicely before they get any nutes. On the last 2 runs I've also starting doing something to save a couple bucks and help with the high nutrient issues of FF soil right out of the bag. I grow in tubs, I fill the bottom 2/3 with fresh soil and a bit of extra perlite. Then I fill the rest with soil from the last run. The first few weeks the seedlings or clones are getting started they are in milder soil. By the time their roots hit the fresher stuff, they are ready to go. Seems to work fine for me.

 

[medmaker420]

Just my noob $.02... I've been using happy frog and im... happy.
The local hydro shop thieves want $20 a bag too, the small chain home center charges $12. I too get a few gnats but use these little sticky pieces of cardboard that catches them all without chemicals and they were cheap. I'm not growing for money, quite happy with 4-5 oz per run in a 6 sq foot cabinet.
You can make it complicated or keep it simple. For me, more simple = more fun.

A few gnats is not what we are complaining about. Once they feel at home they can wreck some shit. I am more than happy with a couple flyers BUT its the little babies playing around in the root system that is the real issue.

 

[ericcalif]

A few gnats is not what we are complaining about. Once they feel at home they can wreck some shit. I am more than happy with a couple flyers BUT its the little babies playing around in the root system that is the real issue.

Have you seen the effects of gnats in the root system using FF soils?
I'm curious what it would look like, and what to look for. I'm on my 3rd grow with FF. The last two had a few gnats flying around (until they got stuck in the traps) but I didn't see anything odd in the soil after the grow. But then again I wasn't looking for anything odd...

 

[EatMoGrass]

I have used Fox Farm Ocean Forest for 5 years and would sometimes see a few gnats, but it was always only a few flyers. They could always be easily controlled with only yellow sticky traps. Not now! The gnats I have now are much stronger and faster reproducing than any others I have seen before. They are a little larger and fly a little faster, and often are strong enough to break free from the yellow sticky traps my the garden.
The bark and sticks in Ocean Forest never bothered me, in fact I liked that stuff. Unfortunately the first two bags I bought of the new "east coast" blend had no wood or sticks. Its just totally different soil than before, or at least the last two bags I bought were. It seemed to be just peat and perlite, with a couple of square chunks that almost looked like root balls.

 

[ProDope]

i've never liked Fox Farm soils. started with weeds & fungus gnats constantly. they're original production facility is just down the street from me & until they moved recently they had no indoor storage for their product. just sat outside in the humboldt rain. next problem was with a good friend...out of a half pallet or so of OF he sorted out about a plastic grocery bag full of trash. rubber band & glove pieces, cotton t-shirt-like scraps, etc.
no more of that. not even for the $8.95 before employee discount. I switched to Roots Organics & couldn't have been happier for about 2 years until their consistency began to come into question just last run. I'm going to give them one more chance ($9/bag).

but about sticks & bark being a concern...doesn't that just show you the good quality raw organics that are going into your soil? Roots is full of that stuff. adds drainage, too. I always though FF was a little too commercial to have that much real material in it.