Grow Mediums Anyone try growing autos in Fox Farms Ko Ko Bop?

[Humanrob]

Curious of anyone has tried this?

https://foxfarm.com/product/ko-ko-bop-coconut-coir-blend-3-cf-grow-bag

 

[OregonBlackBear]

I highly advise staying away from fox farm products, especially their growing mediums. Not only are they overpriced for the quantity and quality of ingredients, their soil is often toxic to plants.

Last few bags of happy frog I bought in Oregon had a ph of 4.3, and the soil mix was about 10% thumbnail size river rocks. This is standard across the board for their soil mixes.

If you're in the PNW I highly suggest checking out E.B. Stone Edna's best potting soil or 420 mix if you can find it. The 420 mix is absolutely amazing quality.

Roots organics is also a great soil company. I used their Lush potting soil last year and wow am I impressed with the quality. Very minimal nute problems with some big plants in small pots outdoors. Normally that would have been quite the struggle.

either the E.B. Stone 420 mix or the ROOTS Lush are a great stand alone or base for building your own organic soil.

But please, do not give your money and frustration to Fox Farms. They produce a garbage product and have terrible customer service.

 

[Humanrob]

I highly advise staying away from fox farm products, especially their growing mediums. Not only are they overpriced for the quantity and quality of ingredients, their soil is often toxic to plants.

Last few bags of happy frog I bought in Oregon had a ph of 4.3, and the soil mix was about 10% thumbnail size river rocks. This is standard across the board for their soil mixes.

If you're in the PNW I highly suggest checking out E.B. Stone Edna's best potting soil or 420 mix if you can find it. The 420 mix is absolutely amazing quality.

Roots organics is also a great soil company. I used their Lush potting soil last year and wow am I impressed with the quality. Very minimal nute problems with some big plants in small pots outdoors. Normally that would have been quite the struggle.

either the E.B. Stone 420 mix or the ROOTS Lush are a great stand alone or base for building your own organic soil.

But please, do not give your money and frustration to Fox Farms. They produce a garbage product and have terrible customer service.

Wow. Thanks for sharing that. I've pretty much exclusively used products for years, and had random issues while growing photos but have had consistent issues since growing autos (only tried them indoors this past winter). seemed like a step up from other 'garden center' bagged soil, I guess there are more options available now. I'd never heard of EB Stone Edna's soil products, but have seen Roots Organic the local shops. A quick search indicates some nurseries out my way carry both (far east Multnomah).

While I've had great luck/success growing autos outdoors in the ground, I'm going to give my brother 4 plants to grow for me this summer. They need to be "plug and play" and in pots, so I've been trying to research simple soil/nute combos (dry time release, if possible), so that he has simple minimal feedings. I'm still working it out since I've had issues growing autos in pots and therefore can't give him a tested/proven set up, but upgrading my soil is a good place to start.
Thanks again

 

[OregonBlackBear]

I live in the mt hood area, so I'm probably sourcing from the same general shops. Roots Garden Supply in North Portland has Roots potting soil (no company affiliation, just happy coincidence) and I liked shopping there when I lived in Portland. Gotta trust a shop with a big friendly dog that asks for pets while you shop.

Out in my area welches Mt building supply has E.B. Stone products.

I would advise from the start not to use time release nutes for autos. Autos have a reputation of being very sensitive to them and problems commonly arise. Mixing your own organic soils is the way to go for plug and play autos. Let me see what I can dig up for you.
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/tlo-for-dummies-from-a-dummy.17822/
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/tlo-super-soil-recipes.10566/
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/this-is-the-answer.19728/

 

[Humanrob]

I live in the mt hood area, so I'm probably sourcing from the same general shops. Roots Garden Supply in North Portland has Roots potting soil (no company affiliation, just happy coincidence) and I liked shopping there when I lived in Portland. Gotta trust a shop with a big friendly dog that asks for pets while you shop.

Out in my area welches Mt building supply has E.B. Stone products.

I would advise from the start not to use time release nutes for autos. Autos have a reputation of being very sensitive to them and problems commonly arise. Mixing your own organic soils is the way to go for plug and play autos. Let me see what I can dig up for you.
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/tlo-for-dummies-from-a-dummy.17822/
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/tlo-super-soil-recipes.10566/
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/this-is-the-answer.19728/

Thanks for that, I've got some reading to do --

 

[nizmoKush]

Never used it before but I've used fox farms happy frog alot and I recently tried there coco loco and no issues at all.. both with bottled nutrients and organically. I have read alot of bad reviews on em but I guess depends on how it's stored (I have no clue on that just a guess).. im about to try coast of Maine Stonington mix in a earthbox jr with some worms..
hope you can choose some good stuff good luck :smoking:

 

[OregonBlackBear]

Their soil is contracted out regionally and is different in different parts of the country. After talking with other growers around the PNW it appears whoever they contract to out here isn't up to the job. Happy frog used to be my go to for a few years, then after half a dozen bad bags over a year I moved on. Hate to see a good brand go bad, but money changes everything.

 

[OregonBlackBear]

Heard great things about coast of maine though, and all the way from over here. Wish we had it.

 

[Humanrob]

Their soil is contracted out regionally and is different in different parts of the country. After talking with other growers around the PNW it appears whoever they contract to out here isn't up to the job. Happy frog used to be my go to for a few years, then after half a dozen bad bags over a year I moved on. Hate to see a good brand go bad, but money changes everything.

In a perfect world, your original response is a great answer to my situation, but in reality I'm some combination of too busy and too lazy to build my own soil, so I'll probably try and work up something from a Roots Organic base, and find the simplest feed schedule I can for my brother.

As a side note, I went to EB Stone's website, and didn't see a '420 mix', do you think it's regional or something maybe they discontinued?

 

[OregonBlackBear]

I think they're trying to keep it down low, I sincerely hope they did not discontinue it.