Is Fox Farms Ocean Forest just ass, or am I screwing this up?

[jamk911]

Just fyi. You transplanted them.. expect some droop. And the light green growth more than likely is the plant just growing fast if you moved em from another soil that had less nutrients...
Also.. over the years fox farms slowly become less nutritious for plants.. soo although alot of people recall a decade ago fox farm OF burning their small plants.. you may need some nutrients today for a bigger plant in it. Id wait and let them recover from any transplant shock we may not see..

 

[Whiskydrunk420]

Exactly three weeks ago, I transplanted 18 plants into 5 gal. fabric bags filled with pure Fox Farms Ocean Forest. In the past, I had amended that soil. This time, I did not.

Well, three weeks into it and all the plants are turning lime green and drooping like mad, starting with new growth and moving throughout the whole plant. I have not added any nutrients.

I'm not over- or under-watering. I have good drainage. The pH of my water is between 6.3-6.6 for every watering. I water until I get a tiny bit of runoff, then wait until it is dry two kuckles down into the soil before watering again. I use tap water, which has iron and other micro-nutrients in it. The air temps vary between 71-81 degrees F. The plants are in full veg, and are getting 18 hours of 500-750 ppfd of full spectrum light, depending on their position.

And the plants all started acting like they were over-watered, even though I know they were not. They began to droop and become lime green from the top, down. Here is a photo of the worst of the plants, at the worst time.

View attachment 1213334

Two days ago I decided to feed them a 1/2 dosing of FF Big Grow (6-4-4) when I watered. Today the plants have perked up to look normal, but they are still lime green. I think they might be greening up, or it could be my imagination. Here's what they look like today.

View attachment 1213338

No longer droopy. Nice and perky again. But (so far) still light color. I don't know how long it should take them to green up.

I thought FF Ocean Forest was supposed to be chock full of macro and micro nutrients. Is it not? Or am I doing something wrong? For the life of me, I cannot figure out what I might be doing wrong, here. I check over and over again, and everything seems right. The only thing I haven't been doing is feeding them nutrients, on the assumption that the Ocean Forest would get them by at least through veg. Seems like the organic nutes should definitely last more than three weeks.

Your sage advice?

I started with that line up had to ditch it for coco , much easier to deal with . I would definitely feed 1/4-50% you should pop right back maybe hit it with some boomerang if you have it.

 

[CocoFun]

Your best best is find a nutrient line you like and just use promix as your median. Look at athena...flora flex...Jacks. They are some of the better synthetic nutrients on the market imo. If your looking for organic...I have run geoflora which is a granular you add to the top of your median every 2 weeks. Seems to work good and all you have to do is add ph'd water. Very simple.

I seldom agree with anyone in these posts....but yeah....promix and a good fertilizer regiment.
70%promix
20%EWC
10% perlite
DR EARTH Veg and flower dry organics
Ummmm, yeah, water when dry.
Bubble up some kelp alfalfa worm popp and molasses every couple weeks, they like it.
ORGANICS =QUALITY
SYNTHETICS = YIELD
(in my opinion of course)

 

[CocoFun]

Just fyi. You transplanted them.. expect some droop. And the light green growth more than likely is the plant just growing fast if you moved em from another soil that had less nutrients...
Also.. over the years fox farms slowly become less nutritious for plants.. soo although alot of people recall a decade ago fox farm OF burning their small plants.. you may need some nutrients today for a bigger plant in it. Id wait and let them recover from any transplant shock we may not see..

I've noticed the amount of bat guano I believe fluctuates. Sometimes it's full of nitrogen, other times, like FFHF

 

[Gtglicky3]

I've noticed the amount of bat guano I believe fluctuates. Sometimes it's full of nitrogen, other times, like FFHF

Do you realize you’re commenting on threads that are 2yrs old? Just wondering it says the date under the persons name. You got any plant pics?

 

[Natep]

Ocean Forrest is a disposable soil. It’s cheap and give fairly consistent results. If you want good soil you will have to make it yourself. The best alternative on the market is build a soil the take and bake or the 3.0 recipe are both really good. With a bit of dry amendments you can reuse there soil for years.

 

[Captspaulding]

Gave up on ocean forest soil years ago, mainly because of the knats that come with the soil. I used it for years though.
Typically 2-3 weeks of nutrients is all you will get out of it before having to add a nutrient line to your feeding schedule.
Any store bought soil you by typically will only last 2-3 weeks if you do not amend it.
Hope that helps:)

Same, it’s just not at all as good as it was,
Got out, glad I did.

 

[weed420420420420420]

One of my best most satisfying good tasting harvests ever was with fox farms salamander soil. Just putting that out there.

 

[Captspaulding]

I run straight out of a bag no amendments, and multiple times. Before tossing.
don’t do anything to it but take the roots out before the second use. Been using it for years now. Black gold.

 

[1diesel1]

My mix;

 

[Stokes]

Fox Farms is hit or miss these days. Im not sure if theyre struggling to meet the demands of more markets opening up or what, but the shit is everywhere now, even ace hardware. Use happy frog for my base, used ocean forest for years, but these days its mulchier than hell, lots of plastic and debris too.

You can still grow with it, just be prepare that if youre not ready for it-flower will hit them hard. Anticipate feeding right after the stretch with flowering nutes

 

[emanresu]

Fox Farms is hit or miss these days. Im not sure if theyre struggling to meet the demands of more markets opening up or what, but the shit is everywhere now, even ace hardware. Use happy frog for my base, used ocean forest for years, but these days its mulchier than hell, lots of plastic and debris too.

You can still grow with it, just be prepare that if youre not ready for it-flower will hit them hard. Anticipate feeding right after the stretch with flowering nutes

Really plastic and junk in it? I can't say I have ever had a problem with the ocean forest I have used. It been pretty consistent. I order mine from amazon. I don't know if that has something to do with it maybe.

 

[Captspaulding]

Really plastic and junk in it? I can't say I have ever had a problem with the ocean forest I have used. It been pretty consistent. I order mine from amazon. I don't know if that has something to do with it maybe.

I have gotten 1ft long chunks of Masonite, wood, tree pulp filler shit, and chipped roots,
Terrible non applicable fungus not the healthy kind. Dormant eggs. All types of shit.

Anyone who hasn’t ran into that crap, I’m super stoked that didn’t happen to you, it sucks. And get snagged 3-4 times, time for a change.

 

[emanresu]

I have gotten 1ft long chunks of Masonite, wood, tree pulp filler shit, and chipped roots,
Terrible non applicable fungus not the healthy kind. Dormant eggs. All types of shit.

Anyone who hasn’t ran into that crap, I’m super stoked that didn’t happen to you, it sucks. And get snagged 3-4 times, time for a change.

god dam.... you guys are making me want to switch and I haven't even had a problem yet. Masonite and some bad fungus are really not cool. I don't know how Masonite would even get in there. Unless they are mulching it maybe.

 

[Budclarkson]

god dam.... you guys are making me want to switch and I haven't even had a problem yet. Masonite and some bad fungus are really not cool. I don't know how Masonite would even get in there. Unless they are mulching it maybe.

Yeah I see the Masonite in my Happy Frog. I called it out here in the past looking like bits of shingles but now that you mention it does look like Masonite board.

Here’s a couple of the chips I pulled out of my 4” starter pots. I use HF for seedlings and then a mix of Coco Loco and Oxean Forrest with some extra perlite and a little worm castings & guano potting up to fabric bags.

I got a big 3CF bag of OF and seems ok. From a member tip here I throw the FF ina bin with soil a few inches deep and let it dry out a bit, turning every day for a week and seems to keep gnats at bay. If I didn’t have enough or short on time, I use the fresh wet stuff at the bottom of the bag and dry at rhe top layer to keep live eggs away from the surface.

 

[Captspaulding]

Yeah I see the Masonite in my Happy Frog. I called it out here in the past looking like bits of shingles but now that you mention it does look like Masonite board.

Here’s a couple of the chips I pulled out of my 4” starter pots. I use HF for seedlings and then a mix of Coco Loco and Oxean Forrest with some extra perlite and a little worm castings & guano potting up to fabric bags.

I got a big 3CF bag of OF and seems ok. From a member tip here I throw the FF ina bin with soil a few inches deep and let it dry out a bit, turning every day for a week and seems to keep gnats at bay. If I didn’t have enough or short on time, I use the fresh wet stuff at the bottom of the bag and dry at rhe top layer to keep live eggs away from the surface.

View attachment 2158586View attachment 2158587

My thing is, it’s never really balanced as far as the amendments are concerned.
99% it’s hot as all hell.
It’s nothing that not manageable. But new folks jump in and have a bunch of needless issues even when it’s cut with happy frog. Which I will use as an absolute last resort.
To much bs filler to pay a premium. That shit became like Cracker Jack boxes. Some new nifty surprises. got a bag that smelled like leftist death too. That was jacked .

 

[Natep]

Gaia green

Only if your in Canada.

My mix;
View attachment 2158435

this is a really good recipe. Very similar to the recipe I did in my bed. I added a precharged bio char and used build a soil craft blend. I also harvest local silts and clays. I add to the E horizon.

 

[LoveGrowingIt]

I just opened my last bag of FFOF. It seemed okay, but I didn't think to look closely. I made a mix of bottom-of-bag soils -- mostly FFHF -- just to clean up my work area. The FFOF was about 20% of the mix.

I've been using FF soils for a while now. I haven't had any problems that I can relate to the soil. I've focused mostly on my mixture. I'll need new soil soon, so maybe it's time to give something else a try. Out here in the wilderness where I live, it's hard to find good ingredients.

 

[LoveGrowingIt]

Only if your in Canada.

Why? I use Gaia Green and I'm not in Canada.

 

[Newty]

I've been using Ocean Forest for years from the same local supplier. To this day no issues at all.

I use more Ocean Forest then most do, I mix 2 parts Ocean Forest to 1 part Happy Frog.

People grow in 1 soil and change soil and expect their water nutrient mix and other aspects of the grow to stay the same. When you change to something new, you can't expect everything you've done in the past just to stay the same.

It also needs to be stored properly, you can't expect a bag in your shed not to get bugs in it. If it constantly gets rained on then you would constantly be flushing it.