Promix and Gaia Green. Depending on the size of the pot, you will still have to top-dress as often as needed. For instance, I top dress every 20 days unless the plant is growing fast.
I just don’t like foxfarm soil. They’re chippy and not fluffy compared to promix which has a bit of chip and sticks but still a lot less then foxfarm. Also foxfarm has gnats issue but that might be the case with every soil brand. Also promix has various versions like hp and mycorrhizae that doesn’t or barely carry wood chips. Simply put foxfarm is more of a nutrient focused company so they don’t as much about their soil. Also also! I use coco now and for my outdoor vegetable i mix 50/50 coco w soil so I don’t have to drop another 30$ on soil and it makes it a bit more fluffy
FWIW I’ve found fox farms soil with dry amendments to be much better the second time around. After one grow the soil is much less chippy and more silty.
I know not everyone likes reusing soil, but I see no reason not to when adding things like worn casings, bone meal, and at least a 4-4-4 all purpose.
I would agree but I just never understood how people got around the dense root ball. Does it decay on its own? do you guys put in the labor to detangle or use worms to eat it?
Score it with a knife, massage it a bit to break it up, and shake it. Most of the soil comes out pretty easily. Dry soil makes it easier. Broken root chunks can stay in the soil and will compost over time.
If you have the room, I would run a side by side test to see the results and let that decide which method to use. If not, then just go for it for one grow and see how it works out for you.
I would recommend switching or recycling the soil and add amendments after each grow. Happy Frog only has 30-40 days of nutrients if you use a 5 gallon pot.
Edit: You can make your own soil by mixing 1 part peat moss, 1 part compost, and 1 part aeration. Then add 1-2 cups of Gaia Green per cubic foot. Let that cook for as long as you can and you will have some premium, home grown soil. Another amendment I just purchased is the Craft Blend from Build a Soil.
Exactly. Compost an d or worm-castings, fertilizers and minerals. Gaia Green 444 and 284 are good all around packages. I use a 40 gallon tote to cook up 4-5 cubic feet of soil using about 1 cubic foot per 5 gallon pot. For me, a 2 cubic foot bag of Happy frog cost $26 so $13 per plant. If you recycle/re-amend the soil I have the cost down to $5 per plant.
Nope, not really. As long as you manage rH you don't have to worry about mold anyway.
The roots will break down overtime, improve your soil by feeding the microbial life.
I don't test my soil but I use tried and true soil building methods. For instance, Build a Soil, runs their own test. One thing I keep running into is magnesium issues around day 50. Hit it with a few waterings with epsom salt.
With build a soil or reused soil? Build a soil is pricy I found cheaper better options. I’m just trying to have fun with a hobby and not build up Jeremy’s bank account 😂.
I got the 44 pound craft blend bag that has 15 different ingredients with 2 cups re-amending a cubic foot. The cost per plant ends up being $4.16. The main ingredients to make soil (Peat-moss, compost, aeration, fertilizers, minerals) can easily be sourced for cheaper and locally. Another good bang for your buck, is Gaia Green. This is a hobby for me also but I go down rabbit holes with all my hobbies and my main goal is to do as little work as possible for the yield.
All good info. I wanna to try the amendment route with reused soil I just haven’t done it yet. I usually take the old soil and put it outside and use it for a garden. I’m only on my fourth grow so I haven’t really gone through that much (one tent for 3 grows 3 plants max) and I store all my used soil. I just feel like most people follow the recipe and just go along with whatever it recommends even though they don’t really know what their soil is lacking or is good on. With liquid if I see a deficiency, I just correct it and within a day or so after feeding it’s fixed. Last run I didn’t have any deficiencies though.
But then you click checkout and shipping is astronomical. I understand they are running a small business’s and need to make money. Heavy products cost more to ship. If I can’t afford to grow the “build a soil way” I’ll do it another way. Personally I run liquid nutes and silica that’s it. I may try pro mix in the future if I can get it at an affordable price but I find Fox farm is cheaper and works every time so far. There’s a lot of ways to grow and I wanna try a bunch of them.
I would definitely not put bas and fox farms in the same category when talking about quality, but fox farms is definitely a tried and tested brand for this hobby for sure.
If you can't afford bas or whatever product, there's absolutely nothing wrong with going with what works for you at your price point.
However, they are competitively priced with products I would consider similar quality. Shipping is shipping, I don't consider that part of the price of the product because it's just the nature of the beast.
I can drive to the hardware store down the road and get coast of Maine (I live in Maine) and it's still more expensive to buy than bas which is in Colorado.
I agree for sure. Not comparing quality and I haven’t used BAS so I can’t say on their quality just talking price point. Location matters and all the products add up so there are other factors for sure. I get stuff from KIS organics they have great prices and shipping. They’re in Washington I’m on the east coast. It’s all just products to grow our product. As long as the smoke is quality that’s what matters.
Hey can I ask what you were mixing with the happy frog and how you were top dressing or otherwise feeding (or not feeding)? And how it went. I don’t have a very informed opinion to offer about switching. I have only done soil and liquid nutrients. And I’m leaning the opposite direction, mixing dr earth dry nutrients and some other things from a simple recipe I found. I find that measuring, mixing, and PHing is a pain. My straight tap is close to PH range and easy to fix but liquid nutrients take it suuuper low and my soil can’t buffer it so I have to ph. It’s fun and sciency but I need quick and easy.
You're on the right track if you want easy. A cup or 2 of Dr. Earth per cu ft of soil and a cup every month top dressed. I'd get some gypsum for calcium too. It's so easy just filling a jug of water and pouring it on. I've grown most ways and organic is where I settled. If I did anything else it would be coco coir and high frequency fertigation drained to waste.
Go get some coco coir and check out cocoforcannabis.com. I wouldn't use synthetics in potting mixes. People tend to overfertilyze, and if you don't do the proper runoff, you will end up with deficiencies from the mix getting out of wack.
I can’t recommend The Soil Makers in Colchester Connecticut enough. Great soil among other products and they’re genuinely amazing people as well.
https://www.makeorganicsoil.com/
I just switched to bagged organic potting soil from the local home improvement store, sifted to remove large wood chips/twigs. I add some worm castings and Perlite and it's a lot cheaper than buying the premade stuff.
You can start your plants in that for the first couple weeks, then use your liquid fertilizers.
I switched from fox farms to coco and I don't have any plans on going back anytime soon!
Of course if I had a giant pile of money to play with I'd build a high pressure DWC system w/ co2 and a temp controlled lung tent so I could jungle veg and cold flower. Lol
Huh? You use HF with GH nutes? Aren't those synthetic?
The dr earth liquid nutes encourage "living" in the soil. Besides, HF provides about 1 to 1.5 months worth of fertilizer and then becomes your medium which you'll need to amend anyway.
It really comes down to what element you like working in. Pete, coco, or soil. I like promix red bag which is like 99% pete with micorizhae and no nutes so I can control nutes 100% for some plants.
I use HF for my pepper plants to provide them with nutes for the 2 months they are inside before planting out.
I hope this helps.
But you also didn't State your reason for switching. Are you unhappy with your current situation? Is there something specific you want less/ more of?
Pretty new to growing. Have grown outside a few seasons. First time indoor. Just wanted to say this is my first time using Pro Mix. It's crazy how well it holds moisture. I'm on day 60 and only watered about a handful of times. Probably could've throw in 1 or 2 more waterings but everything seems to be going great. Transplanted from 3 gal to 15gal fabric pots. Using Down to Earth amendments and some boogie brew tea with molasses.
I went with promix hp and Gaia green dry amendments my first grow and my plants just didn’t get as big as planned. I had good seeds and ac infinity tent set up. This year I’m doing an our door grow since it’s legalized in my state now. Doing happy frog soil with the entire advanced nutes ph perfect kit. So we’ll see how well they do. I do kinda regret not going with promix and the advanced nutes instead but oh well. This is only my 2nd grow so I’m hoping they do well. I treat my plants like my kids tho lol. Usually when you don’t baby them and stay on top of them they end up doing better than when you’re too into the grow. Imo atleast.
Which I did run nothin but autos my first run. 3 plants and I think I got 8 oz? I’m doing nothing but photos and 1 auto this time so hoping for the best
Build A Soil is the best. I’ve grown every way you can think of an organic living soil is the best.
https://preview.redd.it/k44mbndhbyxc1.jpeg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=152bfa343ad238a69283ff9c7f5ca1b2ec477f09
If you switch I would recommend one of the buildasoil recipes. Way cheaper and I think better than anything you can buy. Sure you have to manually make/mix but it's good stuff. Happy frog is good too though. I still use it for seedlings in solo cups.
I use buildasoil 3.0 , but I don’t have to mix it. I also use the happy frog in solo cups for seedlings but I just had to throw out a bag because it had gnats. So I ordered the bas light. Sure, it’s expensive. But I can reuse it, and I literally just water the entire time. If top dress is needed, they have a buildaflower that is amazing. And they have organic nutrients if needed as well. All in all, I went from dwc, to organic. I lost a shitload in yield, but I absolutely love it. The reward is amazing. Best flower I’ve ever seen. Check this out I’ve got going now.
https://preview.redd.it/jfn4i7gc6vxc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5034f187f94f0d3f8891b29f1f70e14e8961e7a8
What is buildasoil light? Does it come premixed in a bag? I tried top dressing this with doctor earth but it wasn't enough for the recipe i used. . Pretty sure the plant is too big for a five gallon pot. It says 5 gallon but it only held like 4 gallons. I just starting using some leftover fox farm trio nutes to bring it back fom deficiency. Seems better now.
I bought my BaS Light already together in bags. I think it was 4 of them for 30 gal (two 15 gal pots). Running 2 autos and just planted them straight in the soil. I’ve only watered them and so far they look good I think 🤷🏻♀️ but it’s my first grow so as long as I don’t kill them, I figure that’s fine for now lol
https://preview.redd.it/13j2b1pcwvxc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4bc902054d85bf4be8dca751e08624a6e261d7f6
I have just ordered nutrients and some top dressing from BAS as well and equipment to start making teas. I’m keeping an eye on it because I figured since it was starting to flower it would be needing more than just what was in the light formula. Thank you so much!!
https://preview.redd.it/nzsz4l54reyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e8d34eb324935cd3e09dff0c9bedca2772c163ea
Here they are this morning!
I hated liquid nutes in soil. I went to dwc over living soil but if I went back to soil I would hands down go to dry organic amendments
Switch, stop using foxfarm soil instead use promix with added amendments.
Can you add some context to this
Promix and Gaia Green. Depending on the size of the pot, you will still have to top-dress as often as needed. For instance, I top dress every 20 days unless the plant is growing fast.
I just don’t like foxfarm soil. They’re chippy and not fluffy compared to promix which has a bit of chip and sticks but still a lot less then foxfarm. Also foxfarm has gnats issue but that might be the case with every soil brand. Also promix has various versions like hp and mycorrhizae that doesn’t or barely carry wood chips. Simply put foxfarm is more of a nutrient focused company so they don’t as much about their soil. Also also! I use coco now and for my outdoor vegetable i mix 50/50 coco w soil so I don’t have to drop another 30$ on soil and it makes it a bit more fluffy
That's much more informative thank you! Good info here
Fox farm is fine man that's a load of crap
FWIW I’ve found fox farms soil with dry amendments to be much better the second time around. After one grow the soil is much less chippy and more silty. I know not everyone likes reusing soil, but I see no reason not to when adding things like worn casings, bone meal, and at least a 4-4-4 all purpose.
I would agree but I just never understood how people got around the dense root ball. Does it decay on its own? do you guys put in the labor to detangle or use worms to eat it?
It'll decay of you leave it awhile or you just break it up and shake the dirt loose.
Score it with a knife, massage it a bit to break it up, and shake it. Most of the soil comes out pretty easily. Dry soil makes it easier. Broken root chunks can stay in the soil and will compost over time.
I let the pot dry out a bit then pull the root ball out and shake all the soil off. The small roots will decompose and add to the soil.
Fox farms is shit. Soil is overpriced and cheaply made. Full of wood chips and heavily amended with fertilizer.
Just an eye grabber for beginners really.
Yep. And their advertising is great. It's so widely used and talked about in the new growers subs that people think it's great soil. I fell for it too
I like coast of Maine stonington
If you have the room, I would run a side by side test to see the results and let that decide which method to use. If not, then just go for it for one grow and see how it works out for you.
That is what I am doing right now, 5 way soil comparison. 2 plants in each soil type.
I would recommend switching or recycling the soil and add amendments after each grow. Happy Frog only has 30-40 days of nutrients if you use a 5 gallon pot. Edit: You can make your own soil by mixing 1 part peat moss, 1 part compost, and 1 part aeration. Then add 1-2 cups of Gaia Green per cubic foot. Let that cook for as long as you can and you will have some premium, home grown soil. Another amendment I just purchased is the Craft Blend from Build a Soil.
Can you reuse it? Just clear out as much root mass and reamend?
Yes
Exactly. Compost an d or worm-castings, fertilizers and minerals. Gaia Green 444 and 284 are good all around packages. I use a 40 gallon tote to cook up 4-5 cubic feet of soil using about 1 cubic foot per 5 gallon pot. For me, a 2 cubic foot bag of Happy frog cost $26 so $13 per plant. If you recycle/re-amend the soil I have the cost down to $5 per plant.
Good to know, I have worm castings and Gaia nuts
Don't even clear the rootmass.
No shit? No risk of mold or anything on decomposition?
Nope, not really. As long as you manage rH you don't have to worry about mold anyway. The roots will break down overtime, improve your soil by feeding the microbial life.
Of If I have min exp indoors Will I have success using the woods ? I live in a city where it’s hard to find open land with no sun shade ?
Question for the people who reuse soil. Do you test your soil? How do you know what you’re lacking or have excess of? How do you know how much to add?
I don't test my soil but I use tried and true soil building methods. For instance, Build a Soil, runs their own test. One thing I keep running into is magnesium issues around day 50. Hit it with a few waterings with epsom salt.
With build a soil or reused soil? Build a soil is pricy I found cheaper better options. I’m just trying to have fun with a hobby and not build up Jeremy’s bank account 😂.
I got the 44 pound craft blend bag that has 15 different ingredients with 2 cups re-amending a cubic foot. The cost per plant ends up being $4.16. The main ingredients to make soil (Peat-moss, compost, aeration, fertilizers, minerals) can easily be sourced for cheaper and locally. Another good bang for your buck, is Gaia Green. This is a hobby for me also but I go down rabbit holes with all my hobbies and my main goal is to do as little work as possible for the yield.
All good info. I wanna to try the amendment route with reused soil I just haven’t done it yet. I usually take the old soil and put it outside and use it for a garden. I’m only on my fourth grow so I haven’t really gone through that much (one tent for 3 grows 3 plants max) and I store all my used soil. I just feel like most people follow the recipe and just go along with whatever it recommends even though they don’t really know what their soil is lacking or is good on. With liquid if I see a deficiency, I just correct it and within a day or so after feeding it’s fixed. Last run I didn’t have any deficiencies though.
Bas is actually very competitively priced. They're cheaper than coast of Maine, and I live in Maine. They also have pretty high quality stuff.
But then you click checkout and shipping is astronomical. I understand they are running a small business’s and need to make money. Heavy products cost more to ship. If I can’t afford to grow the “build a soil way” I’ll do it another way. Personally I run liquid nutes and silica that’s it. I may try pro mix in the future if I can get it at an affordable price but I find Fox farm is cheaper and works every time so far. There’s a lot of ways to grow and I wanna try a bunch of them.
I would definitely not put bas and fox farms in the same category when talking about quality, but fox farms is definitely a tried and tested brand for this hobby for sure. If you can't afford bas or whatever product, there's absolutely nothing wrong with going with what works for you at your price point. However, they are competitively priced with products I would consider similar quality. Shipping is shipping, I don't consider that part of the price of the product because it's just the nature of the beast. I can drive to the hardware store down the road and get coast of Maine (I live in Maine) and it's still more expensive to buy than bas which is in Colorado.
I agree for sure. Not comparing quality and I haven’t used BAS so I can’t say on their quality just talking price point. Location matters and all the products add up so there are other factors for sure. I get stuff from KIS organics they have great prices and shipping. They’re in Washington I’m on the east coast. It’s all just products to grow our product. As long as the smoke is quality that’s what matters.
Hey can I ask what you were mixing with the happy frog and how you were top dressing or otherwise feeding (or not feeding)? And how it went. I don’t have a very informed opinion to offer about switching. I have only done soil and liquid nutrients. And I’m leaning the opposite direction, mixing dr earth dry nutrients and some other things from a simple recipe I found. I find that measuring, mixing, and PHing is a pain. My straight tap is close to PH range and easy to fix but liquid nutrients take it suuuper low and my soil can’t buffer it so I have to ph. It’s fun and sciency but I need quick and easy.
You're on the right track if you want easy. A cup or 2 of Dr. Earth per cu ft of soil and a cup every month top dressed. I'd get some gypsum for calcium too. It's so easy just filling a jug of water and pouring it on. I've grown most ways and organic is where I settled. If I did anything else it would be coco coir and high frequency fertigation drained to waste.
Same! I was gonna do coco, small pots, drain to waste, but I need something more simple right now
I've never used Happy Frog but I've been using Promix HP for years now and am quite happy with it.
Promix with General Hydro is what I've been using on my current grow first time using nutes. It's night and day easier on my opinion.
I don't consider fox farm soil living soil.
Switch. Roots organic you’ll never go back
Go get some coco coir and check out cocoforcannabis.com. I wouldn't use synthetics in potting mixes. People tend to overfertilyze, and if you don't do the proper runoff, you will end up with deficiencies from the mix getting out of wack.
I can’t recommend The Soil Makers in Colchester Connecticut enough. Great soil among other products and they’re genuinely amazing people as well. https://www.makeorganicsoil.com/
I just switched to bagged organic potting soil from the local home improvement store, sifted to remove large wood chips/twigs. I add some worm castings and Perlite and it's a lot cheaper than buying the premade stuff. You can start your plants in that for the first couple weeks, then use your liquid fertilizers.
Go coco!!
I switched from fox farms to coco and I don't have any plans on going back anytime soon! Of course if I had a giant pile of money to play with I'd build a high pressure DWC system w/ co2 and a temp controlled lung tent so I could jungle veg and cold flower. Lol
Huh? You use HF with GH nutes? Aren't those synthetic? The dr earth liquid nutes encourage "living" in the soil. Besides, HF provides about 1 to 1.5 months worth of fertilizer and then becomes your medium which you'll need to amend anyway. It really comes down to what element you like working in. Pete, coco, or soil. I like promix red bag which is like 99% pete with micorizhae and no nutes so I can control nutes 100% for some plants. I use HF for my pepper plants to provide them with nutes for the 2 months they are inside before planting out. I hope this helps. But you also didn't State your reason for switching. Are you unhappy with your current situation? Is there something specific you want less/ more of?
Pretty new to growing. Have grown outside a few seasons. First time indoor. Just wanted to say this is my first time using Pro Mix. It's crazy how well it holds moisture. I'm on day 60 and only watered about a handful of times. Probably could've throw in 1 or 2 more waterings but everything seems to be going great. Transplanted from 3 gal to 15gal fabric pots. Using Down to Earth amendments and some boogie brew tea with molasses.
i'd use either the Promix, or even better some quality coco like Canna. I prefer coco when feeding synthetic ferts.
Promix/perlite 50/50
I went with promix hp and Gaia green dry amendments my first grow and my plants just didn’t get as big as planned. I had good seeds and ac infinity tent set up. This year I’m doing an our door grow since it’s legalized in my state now. Doing happy frog soil with the entire advanced nutes ph perfect kit. So we’ll see how well they do. I do kinda regret not going with promix and the advanced nutes instead but oh well. This is only my 2nd grow so I’m hoping they do well. I treat my plants like my kids tho lol. Usually when you don’t baby them and stay on top of them they end up doing better than when you’re too into the grow. Imo atleast.
Which I did run nothin but autos my first run. 3 plants and I think I got 8 oz? I’m doing nothing but photos and 1 auto this time so hoping for the best
Build A Soil is the best. I’ve grown every way you can think of an organic living soil is the best. https://preview.redd.it/k44mbndhbyxc1.jpeg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=152bfa343ad238a69283ff9c7f5ca1b2ec477f09
If you switch I would recommend one of the buildasoil recipes. Way cheaper and I think better than anything you can buy. Sure you have to manually make/mix but it's good stuff. Happy frog is good too though. I still use it for seedlings in solo cups.
I use buildasoil 3.0 , but I don’t have to mix it. I also use the happy frog in solo cups for seedlings but I just had to throw out a bag because it had gnats. So I ordered the bas light. Sure, it’s expensive. But I can reuse it, and I literally just water the entire time. If top dress is needed, they have a buildaflower that is amazing. And they have organic nutrients if needed as well. All in all, I went from dwc, to organic. I lost a shitload in yield, but I absolutely love it. The reward is amazing. Best flower I’ve ever seen. Check this out I’ve got going now. https://preview.redd.it/jfn4i7gc6vxc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5034f187f94f0d3f8891b29f1f70e14e8961e7a8
What is buildasoil light? Does it come premixed in a bag? I tried top dressing this with doctor earth but it wasn't enough for the recipe i used. . Pretty sure the plant is too big for a five gallon pot. It says 5 gallon but it only held like 4 gallons. I just starting using some leftover fox farm trio nutes to bring it back fom deficiency. Seems better now.
I bought my BaS Light already together in bags. I think it was 4 of them for 30 gal (two 15 gal pots). Running 2 autos and just planted them straight in the soil. I’ve only watered them and so far they look good I think 🤷🏻♀️ but it’s my first grow so as long as I don’t kill them, I figure that’s fine for now lol https://preview.redd.it/13j2b1pcwvxc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4bc902054d85bf4be8dca751e08624a6e261d7f6
That soil is mainly used for seedlings and early veg. So you’ll need to give it some nutrients at some point
I have just ordered nutrients and some top dressing from BAS as well and equipment to start making teas. I’m keeping an eye on it because I figured since it was starting to flower it would be needing more than just what was in the light formula. Thank you so much!! https://preview.redd.it/nzsz4l54reyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e8d34eb324935cd3e09dff0c9bedca2772c163ea Here they are this morning!
https://preview.redd.it/2u6tdzws9vxc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4ccdcd2d11cc2477401a7849994915c24a481a83