ReaperCrew8 said:

I'm about to start a new grow. Autoflowers. 4 indoor plants and 4 outdoor plants. Will be growing in 5 gallon fabric pots. I have Fox Farms Ocean Forest, Happy Frog, and Strawberry Fields.

I'm looking for advice on which to use, or mix, or layer. I would also be adding perlite.

I have the FF Trio for nutes as well.

Click to expand...

If you're sticking with the brand and since you're doing autos, you can get bags of Happy Frog and Ocean Forest and then put together a layered soil with Happy Frog in the top 60%, Ocean Forest in the bottom 40% and extra perlite mixed into both. The seedling gets the gentle nutes they can handle and as they spread out deeper they reach the nutrients they need when they need them by the time they reach the Ocean Forest. I've not done a layered medium before, I'm usually going a different direction working on N sources to spread out between immediate, interim and later release so I'm not having to keep amending or bottle feeding to keep plants happy with a consistent supply. That's looking for the ingredients in the bag that will release N at different intervals based on source.

I'm not familiar with Strawberry Field but it sounds like it's designed for flowering. If you were doing layering, maybe something like 50% happy frog / 40% Ocean Forest and 10% Strawberry Field at the bottom but that might not be good for an auto run.

Strawberry Fields is one of those cocoa/peat blends! 45% coco! Maybe more for the experienced grower! If you’re going right into the final pot for the autos I would go with the OF! It has a little more nute in it than the HF! If you are up potting, maybe the HF first then into the OF! I have used both for seedlings in solos and haven’t seen much difference. Never tried layering! I reuse soil. Outdoors. Like to keep things simple! Good luck!

From all I’ve read mixing soils isn’t a good idea.

Gmix said:

From all I’ve read mixing soils isn’t a good idea.

Click to expand...

I’ve seen some folks have problems, mixing Coco and peat. But I guess if you learn how to use it, it would work! Coco itself is considered soilless! In my world, the HF and the OF are interchangeable! And can be mixed!