New Grower Happy Frog and Roots Organic question

[Sunny747]

You could mix, but I don't see an advantage really.. Either one is fine. Roots will probably drain better. The only complaint I have about roots is that it will definitely come with a free serving of bugs. You'll have gnats within 20 minutes eating the shit out of your babies.

To counter this I hit the roots with a dose of Knockdown Garden Spray and I add 1-2 inches of sand from Home Depot. This takes care of it. Without the sand you are hosed.

This is just a hypothesis, but maybe roots keeps a more stable PH over time. I felt that when i used Ocean Forest that maybe some of the organics were breaking down and turning my grow acidic.. just a thought.

 

[DABaracuss]

I have seen many people complain about fox farm quality going down..I used a 50/50 mix of OF and HF and perlite on my first grow with also worm castings..turned out great .But I wouldnt use it again after bugs popped up in the runoff on my first grow.

 

[Waira]

:smoke: Hey Mz.W!... saw the new set-up ya got-- very nice my friend!.. Now, as for these two soils,...firsty, soils used to be the bomb, but many folks have been getting badly off pH bags these days, myself included,...last two bags testes in the low 5's pH, in the damn bag, for both HF and OF! :slaps: unacceptable!... I had to hammer them with hydrated lime (right now pH correction, unlike dolomite, et al,... which are different chemically..PM me if you have questions, okay?)... still, others get a clean bag on occasion :dunno:,... my last round, even corrected still stunted the plants, which I blame on the poorly cooked OF... HF is the milder of the two, and lots of folks use HF alone, and work their nutes in with a wider safety margin...OF is rich by design!... RO soils are generally better about this pH thing, but again, last bag I tried of 707 tested at 5.5,...:no:-Faaack!... this was after the soil debacle,... looking at the ingredients, they tend to be poorly amended with dolomite,... however, one of the best auto growers I know uses Root Original with minor amendments, especially dolomite,... but he recycles his soil too, so he's not starting from scratch anymore either,... only thing I can tell you is to get an Accurate 8 soil pH probe, or the equivalent, to keep an wary eye on starting soil pH-- in the bag, if you can swing it! I showed this pH issue to guys at my horti-store with this meter, just to prove I'm not talking smack,...eyebrows were raised! ***... I don't know how well distributed they are, but Sanctuary Soils are damn good,... look'm up... I tried Victory and Empire Builder blends, and was very happy with the quality! Sooo, if you try HF or Roots (707 is milder than Original), make damn sure it's not acidic as hell,.. forget the run-off method-- I find it to be too prone to error, frankly,...

 

[Eyes on Fire]

has that happened a lot similar to soils in regards to the 707? i know some of them get lame.hell a lot of em are compared to a yr ago no matter whatcha pick sometimes..crazy..

 

[The Elvis]

The trick to soil is go to the hydro store make them test ph I also smell it .. that's how i buy mine. still is not the best but it works.. Just check before you buy..

 

[Trapper]

I currently use Happy Frog and love it. I always test at the store (and have them double check with a digital probe)
and have yet to get a bag outside a range of 6.3 to 6.8...which is fine by me.

BUT...

My grow store recently informed me that they are being FORCED to accept and sell East Coast facility produced Fox Farms soils.
Up until now, Colorado has drawn from the West Coast facility. It's my understanding that the East Coast facility is having
a lot more problems with obtaining their amendments and with quality control.....rocks, sticks, gnats, etc.

So I'm very NOT PSYCHED about forcing East Coast stock on my grow shop and will be switching to the Roots Organic 707.

Mz. W, I wouldn't mix...just no telling how the combo will act. (IMHO) I would go with one or the other. (Or neither)

 

[Margahooja]

Those friggin gnats got me twice last year. Vowed to never use it again even though my plants were always nice.

 

[wheredaweedat]

ok....the current conundrum is this.


the soil thing has to be dealt with sooner than expected lol The beans came today..and while I don't have to germinate right away.....I want to lol.

So...lets pretend for a minute, that the pH is off and that there are fungus gnats - will the following be successful in helping the situation at all?

Keeping the roots and the happy frog separate

-flush with water pH'd to 6.5 with added mosquito dunks for the gnats and wait for the soil to sufficiently dry out enough to plant..and...well..plant lol

 

[Dazed]

Roots organic is great and HF is too but its geared for photo grows so its a touch hotter.when I helped my friends mix it I told em to try 2 part roots to 1 part HF and plug or tier your seedling mix n he did fine and was able to boost with teas or chems.added a few fist fulls of perlite n all was right with the world.worked excellent for his autos.and if i were using it id start there myself to be honest.id ofcourse add a small touch of lime.

and for future use if you wanna give organics a solid go try this soil.I know many ppl now that have used this with extensively awesome results and they have free shipping now too i think.Been following these guys for awhile since there is literally nothing out of the bag with excellent organic results,except this or possibly the mana mix.

http://ideal420soil.com/

If you are worried about it being too hot, just cut the mix with 50% peat and add about 20% perlite, both of which you can pick up at Lowes or HD for next to nothing. A few gallons of each for less than $10 for sure. That will cut the nutrients down and give you a good base to start with.

This and this,

edit. If you mix in some neem meal or have some neem oil to hand, the gnats will leave. You could also add a touch of lime to balance it all out and provide some ca/mg.

 

[Eyes on Fire]

are you using synthetics or organic is the real question.if you use chem you can use neem cake,gnatrol or the dunks blended into the soil as well as lime and water with high PH water and a seperete seedling mix. organic is similar.neem cake or frass drench prior to planting and again a plug seedling mix with lime added and not PH the water.n that should hold you out.but if your more organic oriented I personally would blend the soil for a week.but thats me and not 100% needed.but it'll work well.:Sharing One:

DAZED I got a pic fer you dude LMFAO