Ocean Forest v Happy Frog

Discussion in 'Growing Marijuana Indoors' started by STilladelph, Sep 25, 2012.

  1. My last grow I used FFOF soil the whole way through the grow and pH was usually always spot on, didn't have many problems at all. This grow I'm starting out with Happy Frog (seedlings haven't even popped up yet).

    Would it be better for me to continue this grow with all happy frog, or a mix of happy frog and the little bit of Ocean Forest I have from last grow?

    I'm concerned with the plants being in shock going into such a hot medium, and I would have to back off the nutrients for a few weeks.
     
  2. ^It sounds like you already know what is best for your plants man. Once your seedlings are old enough to be transplanted, they will be just fine going into a mix of HF and OF.
     
  3. The ocean forest is only really to hot for seedlings to start out in. I have used both and now buy happy frog because it comes with more.
     
  4. I mix 2 parts ffof to 1 part frog when going from red cups to 5 gallon pots
     
  5. I see this was a few days ago, but i was actually searching on something similar...

    I've been using happy frog for two runs now, and in the second i mixed 50/50 with soilless mix. I rely on ff nutes for everything.

    Anyways, anyone notice how acidic happy frog is? at first i thought it was just a bag with too much humic acid or whatever, but ive gone through 4 or 5 bags now and first water i read runoff of 4... have to run like a ton of base through it to get it to 6. As far as i can tell it doesn't recommend any amendments out of the bag, but also doesnt warn you that your ph is going to start around 3. I cant find anyone complaining about this on the forums here.

    Am I missing something? Do they just assume we all adjust ph out of the bag?
     
  6. I don't adjust anything and I do just fine from clone check my grow in my sig
     
  7. have you checked your ph? how can you say you do just fine 3 weeks into flower lol? you have no base for comparison. check the ph. I bet its around 4, and therefore i bet you are doing a whole lot less 'fine' than you could be doing.
     
  8. My plants grow at a normal rate, they show no sign of nute issues and turn out dank and good yield so I think im doing fine
     

  9. That's usually a good sign. The proof is in the product.
     
  10. I started my girls in happy frog and they were super happy with life for the first 20 days or so with no feeding, started feeding, then up potted at the 5 week mark to 1/3 happy frog, 1/3 ocean forest, 1/3 perlite and they seem to love it!
     
  11. yea no doubt... checking the ph is for suckers. If you were to check the ph, though, and find out that it was sitting around 4, what would you do? Would you change nothing because your plants grow at "normal" rate and turn out "dank", or would you adjust the ph so things grow faster, larger, and danker?

    This is my whole point man. I bet people wouldn't even check, because the stuff is literally for growing weed, but its WAY under optimal. Obv it works, but after you adjust it you will see shit explode.

    Just to humor me, why not check your ph?
     
  12. I won't I won't!

    Actually, I'm going to do that tonight.

    If its way low, I mean, should I start feeding it alkaline feeding solutions? Or feed it what I want it to eventually be?
     
  13. i used to use baking soda, but i guess CaCo2 has some single replacement issues that can cause precipitate in the soil and Mg deficiency...

    I use dolo lime in solution, but i ran like a ton of that shit through to get it to 6.5... like an alarming amount (3 or 4 gallons in trough 3 gallons of medium). If your first reading is below 4 like mine was i would flush each plant one at a time with just water at ph 8-9. Run a half gallon through at a time and check runoff each time until you get it around 6, and then mix nutes in the last half gallon and adjust to around ph 8 before running that through too.. final runoff after i did that came to around 6.5, and the change in growth rate was instant and undeniable.
     
  14. Isn't that stripping all the beneficials out of the soil? What's the point of buying 40 dollars worth of soil and stripping it?

    The answer might be that there isn't one, but I'm just checking for future reference.
     
  15. happy frog has very little in it, and if you are feeding with bottled nutes then you dont really need anything in there.

    And no, thats not the only point, its also just a good medium esp if you mix it with some sunshine soilless. It stays real nice and airy and lets the roots get oxygen and holds water well... it performs as a medium more than as a nutrient source. Ocean forest is built with more long term nutrient value in it, but happy frog is not providing any of the major nutes for your plants after the first 3 weeks. They also have some live cultures in the soil too which help throughout the grow cycle, but they should survive/love the flush. From there you gotta feed 'em. Believe me, if your ph is low, then your plants cant take up nutrients anyway even if they are in the soil. Flush it clean then finish with nutes, and they will have everything they need. If you want more nutes, nute harder lol, but the soil never does much during flower, unless you added things that decompose over time. o
     
  16. Word all good points.
     

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