New Grower Black gold or Fox farm?

[calitree2263]

Looking for a soil to plant my autos in that won't produce any problems, I have barneys farm grape muerto and DS Northern light blue.
Going to be growing outdoor in 5gallon pots
Was thinking either ocean forest or black gold natural & organic

Nutrients are going to be trio

anyone have experience with either of these soils?

 

[briman]

Hey cali, ocean forest is a great medium, but has PH swings, but if you can get the ph dialed in, she has enough nutes through week 4-5 in veg.
Black Gold is a great medium, but does not have alot of starter nutes and you will have to provide the nutes, the plants need earlier, by day 7-8. If you have access to a Home Depot, the best bang for your buck is the Sunshine Mix #4 Aggregate for 40 bucks for a 3.8 cf bail. Its alot of soil, but well worth the money!!

 

[Trapper]

I'm partial to West Coast sourced Happy Frog...far fewer issues recently than the OF. The bags of HF I've gotten were gorgeous, uniform and exactly 6.6ph

So many horror stories RE: the East Coast OF in particular....Lumber, rocks, gnats, pH's in the 5's and even 4's....not worth the risk.

HF all the way...my 2 cents.

I run the trio (plus the solubles) as well....

 

[Dazed]

http://themicrogardener.com/easy-diy-potting-mix-recipe/

Maybe this will help, any compost I buy seems to be different from the last, even with the same brand.

 

[calitree2263]

forgot to add I'm going to plant them directly into the pot, no germinating. I heard that autoflowers are sensitive to nutes early on (first auto grow)
is Happy frog/Ocean forest is safe to plant seed in from day 1? I was going to give small doses of big bloom at week 1-2 and a small dose of grow big week 3, then tiger bloom(start from low dose) when they start flowering

Which would you say drains better also?

I'm going to the hydro store in a bit.. Hopefully I can make up my mind on the soil!

Thanks for the fast replies everyone

 

[Eyes on Fire]

I say Black Gold Personally.

Maan,yer gonna wanna use Black gold man.The frigin issues with fox farm soils atm are terrible from all that ive seen.I wouldnt touch em with a ten foot pole,even if YOU were holding it :roflcry:

The trio is easy,gonna kill all the life in yer soil but decent none the less.With the salt deposits on the surface of yer soil(soft lightly white or gray'ish shadow color on yer soil(s) ) n wash it away man.calgon?eh whatever :roflcry: Im high.

Hit the store and get some Jiffy's Organic seedling mix or something VERY similar.Plug prep yer pots n soak yer beans.easy man.

Dont forget to treat yer plants after the first week they are strong or earlier.Not quite a seedling (yet ive treated seedling without issue)but close and use a systemic SNS-209 and Insect Frass within the Soil and a tea once to get your Chitin poppin (yet nutes'll kill that too)for natural defenses n Fungus protect and natural resistant properties of the plant/Soil(yet nutes usually does a fair job too) ect....Enjoy the harvest its a decent smoke.Great for Oil!! :Medibles:

 

[Torched]

I have used both and not had problems with either. Fox Farm can be hot and have PH issues.

Black Gold is probably cheaper than and organic you will have no worries about burning your plants with their soil. Great stuff.

 

[Trapper]

Most would say the OF is too hot for seedlings...Most would say HF is not, I started my bean directly in HF with no problems. Whatever you do, use Big Bloom, it is great stuff....not a veg nute or a bloom nute really...just a maintenance, soil conditioning deal....bat poo and earthworm castings....great stuff. use it throughout, along with a regular regimen of Cal/Mag. They say HF will take you about 2 weeks w/o extra nutes.

Even though they say that synth nutes kill the micro herd, I found that amending my soil with plenty of Great White mycos and using molasses produced a very nice, healthy root mass that encompassed the entire 3gal airpot.

my 2 cents.

 

[Eyes on Fire]

chems kill life.The wettable powders that are Great white..ect that I use too,have an albeit vitamin additive so in turn providing essential boost to said root system..such as B2..smell GW once..open a bottle of B2 plant starter..smells exact imo.Vitamins are vitamin..its less effective if chems are left to reign but effective all the same in that regard.


And molasses is also going to provide you enzymes and natural carbs n sugars n such along with Calcium as well all know.Thats why its always told to ppl to use it organic or not.Its good for them.not too much,but.."AFN smoke out"


I thought I would take a quick minute to address "soluble" mycorrhizae products. These should/are really classified as wettable powders (WP) because they are not truly soluble, rather "suspendable". Anyways, if a mycorr product is grown in containers and then harvest and micronized, like the one in question on your thread, the micronization of the substrate has deleterious effects on the spores in the way of heat and mechanical maceration. Typically you expect for around only 25% (very rough figure and can float dependent on type of micronizer) of the spores to be viable after the milling is complete. Now you are left with mostly hyphae and root fragments to inoculate. This is ok but the shelf life of those compared to spores is low, around 6 months compared to a couple of years for spores stored under proper conditions. WP products should be avoided. In tight soils and heavy clays spores are not even mobile within the soils structures and is a waste to even try watering mycorr in. The best way to apply is by direct contact with exposed roots during transplanting. I believe you are on the right track with the combination of vermi-tea and mycorrhizae rather than trying to continually add one of the broad spectrum overpriced microbe inoculants like Great White. Most of the mycorr inoculants found in hydro stores are private labels of Mycorrhizal Application products... I would also be very skeptical of any liquid mycorr products as well.


:tiphat:

www.autoflower.org/f89/inoculants-33320.html

 

[NekoSempai]

My first harvest, which was black and gold organic soil. Came out fire.

And my current grow is in the last of my Black Gold Organic. They are growing excellent so far. No Ph problems or anything. This batch of soil actually came out to ~ 6.5ish out of the bag. Personally if my autos come out as good or better then my photo's. I might just stick with this for now.


I have not experience with , so cant comment on that end.