Going with Happy Frog - Fox Farm Anything I should know?

[Baba Ku]

Many things get dubiously blamed for hosed grows that probably had nothing to do with the poor performance of the grow. Root aphids included.
Some people spout shit like that off just to spout off, and wouldn't know a root aphid from a tinkers damn.

 

[robbiedublu]

dude what are you missing? dryer climate = no gnats
gnats are everywhere,not just in bags of dirt.fix your enviroment you fix your gnat problem.Why would I care about how many posts there are regaurding gnats? the solution is simple for everyone.Keep humidity down and your area clean the gnats will leave by choice.or hang a no pest strip.they work too.
I've used ffof and happy frog.for years,Im on the east coast.Ive never ever had a gnat problem.I've had gnats though. it's just I found by lowering humidity and cleaning up that the gnats leave.So give it a try.you'll like the results

I understand what you're saying. I'm in the pacific northwest so I do have high humidity sometimes. But gnats are not "everywhere". My point is that even with high humidity i've not seen 1 fungus gnat in years since controlling my initial infestation ,WHICH CAME FROM FF PRODUCTS! Maybe their products are better now than years ago. I don't know or care. I'll never buy their shit again and will steer anyone I can away from them. There are to many other good, non infested choices now days. (Canna)

 

[h.h.]

Lighten it up, add dolomite lime, use a simple nute program and don't overdo it. Cut the nutes in half if anything. I like to use silica a a bit of Epsom salt as well. Read the forum and you can expand on what you add. Get into the soil mixes. Mix your own. You can do better than the commercial products. You can also do worst.
End of thread.
Almost forgot. You're welcome...

 

[organicterra]

if i were all of you knocking on what CC is saying id reconsider.
this guy knows wtf hes talking about. and like he said im sure hes forgotten more than you know.
listen up.

I agree.
Coot's put up more useful information here and elsewhere than most everybody else combined.
The rest of you can just keep using your ffof and be happy.

 

[intotheunknown]

That's great, but people come here to learn, teach and/or propagate the organic lifestyle not be chased off by some soil nazi with a bad case of hemorrhoids. Bad attitudes get us no where. With that being said, I've had good results from using all sorts of fox farm organic products, they may not be perfect, you just have to know how to use them.

im sure CC would have gotten to spit some MORE useful information, if everybody didnt get so defensive about using the poor choice in soil this thread is about.

its like he was talking shit about everybodys mothers and all of you took it to heart. its only bagged soil for fucks sake.

yes and youre right people do come here to learn, teach, etc. and thats just part of it. people are going to tell you when youre using crappy soil and be straight up about it. and yes thats just part of a learning experience.

but its fine. we all use what we use. sometimes there are just better ways of doing things. no need to get your feelings hurt. this was not fully directed at you by the way.

however useful information would include none of us arguing and someone attempting to spit facts. caugh caugh

 

[Baba Ku]

You have any facts for us?

 

[mad librettist]

you guys need to stop spending so much cash on soil and save up for a microscope.

Or you could listen to CC. The dude has earned the right to be crabby. His posts are entertaining even when they don't have info. When it comes to sourcing shit, from information on regs to good places to pick up products and industry insider knowledge, CC is your man. Stick around and you'll see.

gnats- if the soil comes infested with gnat eggs and larvae resulting from the storage and processing conditions, it's going to take you time to bring it back to balance. Wasted time, IMO. And if food is around in the soil that is preferred by gnats, you get gnats - humidity or no humidity. That's just fucking common sense.

btw your best tool for fighting gnats is a good vacuum cleaner with a hose setting and a light. Also, they are weak flyers, so moving air really limits them. Keeping a few carnivorous plants in your grow is a good preventive/monitoring system.

 

[organicterra]

Actually, HF and OF are nearly the same mix other than the HF has omitted the fish and crab meal. It is a bit LESS hot than OF.

I understand there are two facilities now mixing the mediums, one east coast and one west. I have heard that the wc facility has the product outdoors and the east coast indoors.
You can bet that there are two different sourced peats used.

Got any facts for us.

 

[SOTF420]

Spraying the surfaces of my medium with a mixture of lavender essential oil, cold pressed neem oil, and Dr. Bronners's castille soap (get the lavender one) pretty much takes care of any gnats & various other little creatures like aphids & mites that seem to come in organic soils in general by nature.

Here is my recipe for that:

Half gallon of clean water (or full gallon for foliar)

2 teaspoons of natural organic castille soap (lavender, peppermint, or tea tree oil)

shake well, add:

25 drops lavender essential oil, then add:

1 teaspoon cold pressed neem seed oil (you can use more if you wish)

shake well:

Then heavily spray the shit out of everything, or use as a soil drench. You can also spray on plants & leaves to control any spidermites which it works fantastic for but for just foliar usage I would dilute the above in a full gallon of water although I have used the half gallon concentration no problem before lights went off. Follow up a few days later again for total control. Don't omit the soap it has to be in there to break up and dissolve the neem oil for it to work right and also helps spread the solution out properly on the soil, leaf surfaces & stems. Spray your containers & smartpots too!

 

[mad librettist]

Spraying the surfaces of my medium with a mixture of lavender essential oil, cold pressed neem oil, and Dr. Bronners's castille soap (get the lavender one) pretty much takes care of any gnats & various other little creatures like aphids & mites that seem to come in organic soils in general by nature.

Here is my recipe for that:

Half gallon of clean water (or full gallon for foliar)

2 teaspoons of natural organic castille soap (lavender, peppermint, or tea tree oil)

shake well, add:

25 drops lavender essential oil, then add:

1 teaspoon cold pressed neem seed oil (you can use more if you wish)

shake well:

Then heavily spray the shit out of everything, or use as a soil drench. You can also spray on plants & leaves to control any spidermites which it works fantastic for but for just foliar usage I would dilute the above in a full gallon of water although I have used the half gallon concentration no problem before lights went off. Follow up a few days later again for total control. Don't omit the soap it has to be in there to break up and dissolve the neem oil for it to work right and also helps spread the solution out properly on the soil, leaf surfaces & stems. Spray your containers & smartpots too!

This thread that i made will help you get more out of your oils, maybe help you reduce application rates.

I would maybe think twice about treating your soil with pesticides on a regular basis, even mostly harmless ones like lavender. Neem oil has a strong anti-fungal effect, which is bad news for perpetual soil.

Integrated Pest Management is a good practice to follow.

 

[SOTF420]

I normally only spray the surfaces of soil once or twice in a cycle, works great on rockwool cubes too.

How do you feel about some soils (or recipes for) integrating neem cake?

Just wondering and will check out your link

 

[mad librettist]

How do you feel about some soils (or recipes for) integrating neem cake?

Personally, I don't use neem cake, because I am looking for a layer of fungal activity on the surface.

But just as you are using the neem very rarely, applying neem cake at the beginning won't result in fungicidal action for all that long. Neem oil itself does not persevere all that long in the environment. (I've had to spray once per 3 days during a summer mite invasion)

I'm not quite sure why my soil is mostly gnat free. There is a pretty new worm bin in the kitchen, and it is infested with gnats. I'm letting the gnats do their thing until the bin balances out, and I have started feeding crab shell meal. But my active soil has very few gnats.

I'm not going to dress my containers with neem cake, since they don't need it, but it might be nice in my worm bin. By the time it reaches the bottom and is harvested, the neem would be long gone and I would probably still have both bacteria and fungi in good amounts.

 

[SOTF420]

Appreciate your opinions on it and for that matter and since we are in a thread about Fox Farm products, my bags of Ocean Forest (FFOF) DID have root aphid as well as fungus gnat eggs in the soil but was readily controlled with the above mentioned solution.

I have found just about any and all organic soil products will normally have eggs of something in it, that is just the nature of viable soil with it's own little living breathing ecosystem which our favorite plants favor so much over the sterile non-living ones.

 

[mad librettist]

the critical distinction is - infestation, aka monoculture. (when I look at a corn field, I see a corn infestation). When soil is infested, it does not function properly.

Healthy soil will have all sorts of eggs in it. My perpetual smart pots already have at least a dozen species of animal you can see with just your eyes if you watch the soil long enough. Using magnification yields a microcosmic jungle. They were just recently filled with a mix I made in january, but there is some material in there that originated outside and has been kept in the mix for years.

 

[SOTF420]

And I thought I was just really high when I saw those little cute bugs in my smartpots!

 

[mad librettist]

the ones that were speaking to you were hallucinations from sweet tooth.

The mute ones were real.

 

[SOTF420]

OMG they were all talking, something about sweet pink grapefruit flavored roots...

 

[mad librettist]

lmfao

 

[Sgt.Stedenko]

I've used happy frog for three years of growing in dirt. Never saw one gnat.
Never had nute burn problems.
Dont feed the trolls.

 

[mad librettist]

Never saw one gnat.

I'd say that is not a good sign either. You should see at least one gnat in 3 years.