A test in progress.... Miracle Grow soil vs. Fox Farms soil. Is MG really that bad?

GreatwhiteNorth

GreatwhiteNorth

Global Moderator
Staff member
RavenMochi said:
†LHFAO† I knew it, I knew it couldn't be helped. Without any facts, test, or basis of reason a ff user wouldn't accept the fact that mg outperformed ff. As far as "chemical baddies" people have been growing food in mg for years with no ill effect, why all of a sudden in mj is it going to kill me again? Accept it tyke, mg outperformed your precious fox farm. :shock:
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A closed mind is a terrible thing to waste.
 
Skoad

Skoad

Well-Known Member
All pictures are of MG soil EXCEPT the last picture is of FF. I tried to find better FF pictures but never uploaded any here. I can assure you tho, that not a single one of my FF grows have been as good as my first grow using MG. The last picture is of a dying plant haha, not all the FF problem, but imagine that plant without the leaves being all jacked up, and that is how it looked before the problems.
 

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jawbrodt

jawbrodt

Well-Known Member
^Very nice man, except for the FF plant.lol In FF's defense, it's not terrible, by any means. It's just overpriced.lol It does seem to be pretty finicky though, and easy to run into trouble, if things aren't just right. I'm starting to attribute alot of that to using smaller pots, though. Since I switch from 2-3 gallon, to 4-5, I've been doing alot better. There seems to be alot more room for error, that way, and less risk of overfeeding. The plants stay shorter too, which is cool. I'll probably switch back to MG soil, myself, being that I can drive 10 minutes and get some, whereas I have to drive over 2 hours, to get FF's. Even if I spend the extra money for MG perlite, it'll still be alot cheaper than going to the hydro shop. :cool:
 
Jack in the Bud

Jack in the Bud

Active Member
jawbrodt said:
^Very nice man, except for the FF plant.lol In FF's defense, it's not terrible, by any means. It's just overpriced.lol It does seem to be pretty finicky though, and easy to run into trouble, if things aren't just right. I'm starting to attribute alot of that to using smaller pots, though. Since I switch from 2-3 gallon, to 4-5, I've been doing alot better. There seems to be alot more room for error, that way, and less risk of overfeeding. The plants stay shorter too, which is cool. I'll probably switch back to MG soil, myself, being that I can drive 10 minutes and get some, whereas I have to drive over 2 hours, to get FF's. Even if I spend the extra money for MG perlite, it'll still be alot cheaper than going to the hydro shop. :cool:
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Hey jaw,

I found 4 cubic foot bags of SunGro perlite at one of my local landscape nurseries for $27. I also got a 4 cubic foot bag of vermiculite at the same place for $29. That was almost 2 years a go and I've still got around half of it left on hand for future grows. You might want to get out the yellow pages and call around your area to see what you can find.

From an econonomic standpoint buying those smaller bags of MG perlite (or other brands) is just not the best deal to be had.

Jack
 
steve yo

steve yo

Member
I prefer MG, i've not had a single problem ever..
just near harvest i put a lot of holes in the bottom of the pot and let the water flow through until i get no nutrients in the used water.
then the MG isnt so hot anymore.
 
jawbrodt

jawbrodt

Well-Known Member
^Bingo. That's what I do, when I'm flushing. I don't get it down to 0 PPM, but once it get's down around 100 PPM, I stop flushing. Saved me alot of time, because I've found that it doesn't quite take 3x the pots volume, for a good flush. Typically, it's closer to 2x the volume, in my case.
 
jawbrodt

jawbrodt

Well-Known Member
P.S. I should be able to get some updated pics posted, tonight. It's been awhile, so if I'm home, I'll get 'em up here. They haven't grown much taller, but are starting to branch out, nicely. :weed:
 
jawbrodt

jawbrodt

Well-Known Member
Jack in the Bud said:
Hey jaw,

I found 4 cubic foot bags of SunGro perlite at one of my local landscape nurseries for $27. I also got a 4 cubic foot bag of vermiculite at the same place for $29. That was almost 2 years a go and I've still got around half of it left on hand for future grows. You might want to get out the yellow pages and call around your area to see what you can find.

From an econonomic standpoint buying those smaller bags of MG perlite (or other brands) is just not the best deal to be had.

Jack
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Hey, thanks for the tip. I might make some phone calls Monday, and see what I can find. One bag will last a loong time, because I'm going back to work, in a week or so. I'll be scaling back from 10-12 plants every 5 weeks, to 4-6 every 5 weeks. That 4 cu. ft. bag should last til next winter. :cool:
 
Kaptain Kron

Kaptain Kron

Well-Known Member
jawbrodt said:
^Bingo. That's what I do, when I'm flushing. I don't get it down to 0 PPM, but once it get's down around 100 PPM, I stop flushing. Saved me alot of time, because I've found that it doesn't quite take 3x the pots volume, for a good flush. Typically, it's closer to 2x the volume, in my case.
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yeah i typically only flush 2x the pot size and it works good shit i didnt even get to flush my outdoor plant this season really cuz i got so many bud worms and the heat got me right at the end so i pulled it down earlier than i thought i was going to i put it under my ceiling fan in my room with the lights on for 3 days after i "flushed" six gallons thru my 3 gallon pot and my buds came out bomb tasting still very surprising considering the very minimal flush also told me the nuts i was using were good as well, GO AN lol im switchin to super soil and mg or local nursery potting soil. AN is bomb stuff but its just too pricey if your not doing hydro. Because i can use super soil and have more nuts for more plants than i would if i was using the an.

Might try MG but i just dont like the added nutrients compared to my local nurserys potting soil the mg is hotter and so is the FF i like to start slow. But if i wasnt buying the nursery soil i would be buying the mg and flushing it out just a bit before i use it I like a little yellow in my plants to start with so i can slowly adjust my levels of npk i notice that i like to feed heavy when i use liquid nuts so i like my soil to have less stuff in it. Just gotta kill the rest of my damn FF soil before i crack into the new good stuff. Can't wait to try the super soil recipe couple more months and i can start planting outside again. But if i had to pick between ff and mg its mg for sure just cheaper
 
DudeLebbowski

DudeLebbowski

Well-Known Member
Top ten soils are ones especially for weed like in cali or something.
Over here, soils are shit.
So I have absolutely no idea.
 
Jack in the Bud

Jack in the Bud

Active Member
DudeLebbowski said:
Top ten soils are ones especially for weed like in cali or something.
Over here, soils are shit.
So I have absolutely no idea.
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Dude,

You are exactly the kind of person that this thread will be the most benefical too if you'll listen to what's being said and forget your heretofor preconcieved notions about "cali" soils and "nutes".

All though it's been a while I've lived and worked in LA for a year and I have a pretty good idea of what you're up against politically and commercially as far as growing yourself some good weed goes.

Forget about all these "perfect products" you've heard about for growing weed. The only thing that should matter to you is what you can readily get your hands on with out drawing attention to yourself that will give you good results (and just forget about perfect results).

You don't live in CA and those products aren't really available to you from an economic and security standpoint. You've got to learn to work with what you can readily get your hands on at a reasonable cost. It's a whole lot like "moonshinig" (and being a southern boy you ought to have some understanding of what that's all about).

Jack
 
jawbrodt

jawbrodt

Well-Known Member
^Yeppir, nicely put. IMO, with proper drainage, ANY soil can work great, as long as you have the exoperience to know how to keep their nutrient needs satistifed. Give the roots plenty of oxygen, moisture, and nutes, and they'll grow great in just about anything.



Also, I'll have some pics coming a little later. Stay tuned.....
 
jawbrodt

jawbrodt

Well-Known Member
Okay guys, it's been awhile, so it's time for some new pics. The training is going well, except that I did it a hair too early, on that one phenotype(plants 1 and two, first is FF and 2nd is MG), because the top split and take over, a bit faster than I would've liked. Ah well, I'll just bend them, too.lol At any rate, I chose two phenotypes, and it's pretty easy to tell them apart. Plants 1 and 2, are growing faster, and are a bit more stretchy, whereas the other two are more compact and bushy. Plant #4 is looking a bit droopy, so I just gave them a foliar feeding, and am pretty certain they'll all be nice and perky, in an hour or so. I'm going to take pics of the droopy one, for comparison.

Anyway, here's the long-awaited pics.lol The first 4 are FF plants, and the last 4 are the MG plants. In the pics with all 4 plants, the FF are 1 and 3, from left to right. Um, nevermind those half-dead plants in the background. I've been meaning to kill them, but just can't make myself do it.lol I might even salvage a couple, since I have 'em. They should recover just fine, after a transplant, should I choose to do so. At any rate, I gave them all a foliar feed, and a good, heavy, Calmag watering. I'll decide whether to execute them, in the next day or three. :weed:
 

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