Fox Farm's Ocean Forest VS Strawberry Fields

[Classof69]

I am in a very remote area and have been growing with plain dirt with compost and having fair to partly cloudy results. Just recently Fox Farm's products have been made available to me so I ordered Ocean Forest, Strawberry Fields, and Happy Frog along with their basic trio nutes. I have read that the OF is better for veg and Strawberry Fields is better for flower. I have purchased 5 gallon fabric pots, 20 WW photo seeds and 5 each of amnesia haze, blueberry and Northern Lights autoflower seeds. This will be my first attempt at autos. For the autos I'm thinking to start the seeds in biodegradable, non woven, seedling bags with HF and then when ready bury them in their forever 5 gallon pots filled with about 1/3 to 1/2 of the SF on the bottom and the rest with OF so as the plant grows through veg her roots will finally get down to the SF hopefully about the time they start flowering. Does this sound feasible? I also have a 45W full spectrum LED screw base light that I would like to use for the seedling stage. I also have a 45w & a 100w CFL. Which would be best for auto seedlings and how far away. I'm getting excited about my new learning opportunity. I am also planning on planting one each of the autos and having them on a cart to move them into the sun and then into the grow room for the supplemental light for the extra 6 hours to fill an 18/6 schedule. This helps tremendously on keeping my light bill down. I am already skating on thin ice with the wife concerning the $$$ I'm spending on my "hobby". I have grown 2 photos with this method with very acceptable results but I know autos are a different animal. Do you think moving them every day would stress them. I should be receiving everything by the end of this month. Thanks all for your input.

 

[Boognelson87]

If you havent planted yet. Do yourself a favor and dont use fox farms soil. If you look under the infirmary and sick plant section. Myself included was in there in the past but you will see exactly how many people are having so many issues with ph swings in the soil around week 5. Now that im warning yoh and if you monitor your ph runoff every watering you can probsbly well maybe keep it xorrected. When it jappened to me it went downhill fast. Good luck if tou continue to use it. Just hate seeing new growers put in work and the soil be shit and mess ir up for them. Just look up ocean foresr and fox fsrms happy frog problems on this site and youll probably just use that for cabbage or letruce next garden season.

 

[Gimemy]

My autoflowers grew out of the bottom of their 5 gallon buckets in 10 days my first you grows I struggled with Happy Farm and dirt don't use dirt run my AutoZone 24 hours a day I also have photos in there too and their outgrown the autos

 

[Gimemy]

Also I believe that the larger the container longer Auto takes to finish

 

[Classof69]

Also I believe that the larger the container longer Auto takes to finish

I have read this also but that if you continue the veg cycle as long as the plant allows and not switch the light cycle to flower the plants will grow larger and the 5 gallon will come in handy. I am in no hurry. I am rapidly approaching my 40th annual 29th birthday with no end in site. I am also going to try my hand at LST so I will be starting the plants off center so that when the plant lays over it will not be over the edge of the pot.

 

[Classof69]

If you havent planted yet. Do yourself a favor and dont use fox farms soil.

What would you suggest? I live in a remote area of the Yucatan Peninsula. My yard is about 2" of dirt covering sand and rock and that is a lot of dirt for this area. Anything I can use locally would have to be built from the ground up. (No pun intended). Amazon has just recently started to deliver to my area. About half the things I want from them are not available to ship to my location. The first delivery they called me and I had to go meet them to show them where I was.I am now the official Amazon depot for my area. Everyone ships to me. We do not have mail service here. I have to drive over an hour if I wanted to mail a letter although I can't imagine why I would want to. lol. Seriously any alternative solutions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Boognelson87]

All i suggest is looking in the infirmary. On here. Maybe read how to prevent fox farms soil from going acidic. You can add stuff like dolomite lime... just research. All i can do is help you not make a mistake i did. It took me 3 weeks to correct my soil. I now use promix. Have you considered using coco? Thats cheap on amazon. I just can almost guarantee that soil is gonna have ph swings about 5 weeks into the grow.

 

[420Forever]

I am in a very remote area and have been growing with plain dirt with compost and having fair to partly cloudy results. Just recently Fox Farm's products have been made available to me so I ordered Ocean Forest, Strawberry Fields, and Happy Frog along with their basic trio nutes. I have read that the OF is better for veg and Strawberry Fields is better for flower. I have purchased 5 gallon fabric pots, 20 WW photo seeds and 5 each of amnesia haze, blueberry and Northern Lights autoflower seeds. This will be my first attempt at autos. For the autos I'm thinking to start the seeds in biodegradable, non woven, seedling bags with HF and then when ready bury them in their forever 5 gallon pots filled with about 1/3 to 1/2 of the SF on the bottom and the rest with OF so as the plant grows through veg her roots will finally get down to the SF hopefully about the time they start flowering. Does this sound feasible? I also have a 45W full spectrum LED screw base light that I would like to use for the seedling stage. I also have a 45w & a 100w CFL. Which would be best for auto seedlings and how far away. I'm getting excited about my new learning opportunity. I am also planning on planting one each of the autos and having them on a cart to move them into the sun and then into the grow room for the supplemental light for the extra 6 hours to fill an 18/6 schedule. This helps tremendously on keeping my light bill down. I am already skating on thin ice with the wife concerning the $$$ I'm spending on my "hobby". I have grown 2 photos with this method with very acceptable results but I know autos are a different animal. Do you think moving them every day would stress them. I should be receiving everything by the end of this month. Thanks all for your input.

I have read this also but that if you continue the veg cycle as long as the plant allows and not switch the light cycle to flower the plants will grow larger and the 5 gallon will come in handy. I am in no hurry. I am rapidly approaching my 40th annual 29th birthday with no end in site. I am also going to try my hand at LST so I will be starting the plants off center so that when the plant lays over it will not be over the edge of the pot.

What would you suggest? I live in a remote area of the Yucatan Peninsula. My yard is about 2" of dirt covering sand and rock and that is a lot of dirt for this area. Anything I can use locally would have to be built from the ground up. (No pun intended). Amazon has just recently started to deliver to my area. About half the things I want from them are not available to ship to my location. The first delivery they called me and I had to go meet them to show them where I was.I am now the official Amazon depot for my area. Everyone ships to me. We do not have mail service here. I have to drive over an hour if I wanted to mail a letter although I can't imagine why I would want to. lol. Seriously any alternative solutions would be greatly appreciated.

heya @Classof69 and to afn! first off, i do realize ur remote location, etc, and subsequent difficultiez obtaining thingz, but me hafta fully agree with boog and advize against ff soilz u'd be better off continuing to jus uze ur composted dirt & adding nutez as u go...the ffof especially is way too hot, and as @Mañ'O'Green recently said, the ph is "notoriously variable out of the bag"...i uzed straight ffof for my current grow, and sure nuff, along about day 40-45, everything went to hell & is still there now at day 76 or so, lol...the ph of the ffof was 7.5 outa the bag & has alwayz remained so...in the meantime, i decided to get the frog instead for the next grow, but have now decided against that as well...not sure yet what mix i'll end up uzin, but if at all possible, it won't have any ff anything in it

as far as light, well, cfl'z will be ok for veg, but ur gonna want sumthin a lot stronger for flower...and, i'm not quite sure to which u were referring, photoz or autoz, when u said, "not switch the light cycle to flower the plantz will grow larger" but with autoz, u don't have a choice, as they flower according to a preset time schedule in their genez, and it has nothing to do with light schedule...also, ur idea of carting them in & out every day is all fine & good, but jus be aware of pestz that u'll probly be carting in as well...jus fyi

ppp &

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Watch the PH on that soil. The best soil probe tool for the money is the Accurate 8 knock off. You would be better off using a rigid pot if you plan to move them around like that. Fabric pots move the soil and roots too much and that can stress the plants. You can run those CFL as close as nearly touching the plants. When you can afford it an AutoCob from @BigSm0 would be very beneficial to your harvest.

Don't waste your money on a cheap one. You will end up paying for it in spoiled crops. Looks like the Accurate 8 is selling for less than the knockoff right now.

Follow the instructions to maintain it.

 

[Classof69]

u don't have a choice

I know you don't have a choice with autos but some people try to force it by changing the light to 12 and 12 and that stunts the plant from what I have read. I plan to use an 18/6 for the entire time because I will be growing a couple of photos also. I am aware of the pest issue with in and out grow. Had a couple of run ins with my first plant.

sumthin a lot stronger for flower

I have a Kingbo dual switch full spectrum LED for a light. Took me 4 months to get it.