Gravel at the bottom of pots.

There is pearlite allready in FFOF soil... I added about 20% to mine and wish that I didn't! I am sure FFOF would be great with no pearlite added and still have good drainage. I have done the gravel at the bottom of pots before when I was messing around with outdoor grows and it never seemed to hurt anything

 

Hey Crutch

Why do you wish you did't put extra perlite in your FFOF? FFOF has very little perlite in it, which I like, rather pay for soil and add my own perlite as its cheap.

 

The soil just seems very airy and fluffy... it's not bad but it seemed like my plants burned through the FFOF soil quickier than they should have.... I could have maybe packed a little more soil in there for them instead of pearlite. I have added a few cups of it when it looked like it need some more soil. Also I have read on here about people not putting any pearlite in it.

 

I guess its one of those personal preference things... I mix it in and my plants seem to like it, makes thorough watering and if needed flushing easy, and keeps my soil from getting compacted. My plants can easily go 4 weeks without adding any nutes, all I give them is some Big Bloom up untill then.

 

you can add a bit of gravel at the bottom just dont put a thick layer cuz most roots are at the bottom of your pot they need a medium that absorbs water to feed em or else they'll grow upwards(not good) youu can put some gravel on the drainage holes in the bottom of ur bickets just to keep em open you can also punch a few more holes. cheers:high:

 

I don't put gravel in the bottom of my MJ plants, just Fox Farms Ocean Forest and a few additives. Like was said, it already has the right amount of perlite.

One thing that I use as an additive is Oil Dry, thatyou can buy inexpensively at
auto stores. It's calcined clay, that I screen to 1/8"-no fine particles.

It helps with drainage and water holding capacity.

Fox Farms Ocean Forest is great alone too.

 

Not familiar with "Oil Dry" but you could use Vermiculite which does the same thing, helps retain water, and made to be used with plants

 

im on my first round of growing with ffof, and have not added any perlite, and my girls seem to be loving it in flower, and the girls in veg look great and dont take any nutes til i put them into flower, unless i veg for longer than 2-4 weeeks.

 

I always put a layer of rocks at the bottom of the pot. This prevents water from pooling at the bottom of the pot, essentially a French drain. You don't want porous rock or any material that will interact with the soil. I usually get a bag of "river rocks" or similar descrip from Home Depot, about 50 pounds for like $3.

 

i mix one bag ffopm with 1/3 bag of perlite and 1/3 bag vermiculite. with no complaints from afgani, ww, blueberry, passion #1....