Bad batch of Ocean Forest

Jerry Garcia

Well-Known Member
I use Ocean Forest & Happy Frog by the truck load. Literally!

I can honestly say I have purchased 100's of bags over the years. I've never had a bad batch.

Fox Farm is the ish!

Peace
doublejj
Hell yeah, I love the stuff. But they changed the formula and started using some crappy pine tree bark here on the east coast...be happy your in cali where you can get the REAL thing!
 

Jerry Garcia

Well-Known Member
sounds to me like the soil molded.........
I've never seen molded soil...at least I don't think I have. This stuff doesn't look BAD, it just looks different (more gray, less wonderful black). It does perform quite poorly however.

I'm going in to get my new bag of soil this morning...let's hope it's WAY better.
 

cowboylogic

Well-Known Member
Are you a Texans fan? They're the only red and black colored team to beat the Bengals this year (Denver was the other and we totally should have won that game!).

The only other red and black teams I can think of are the Falcons, and we don't play them this year.

I love talking smack about football though! It's one of my biggest passions aside from growing!
Bengals do not stand a chance against my Patriots. Or even the Colts as far as that goes. Ocho will sink the ship as Carson Palmers drowns. Nice first half of the season. From here on out it gets ugly for the Orange and Black.:fire:
 

Jerry Garcia

Well-Known Member
Bengals do not stand a chance against my Patriots. Or even the Colts as far as that goes. Ocho will sink the ship as Carson Palmers drowns. Nice first half of the season. From here on out it gets ugly for the Orange and Black.:fire:
As long the Patriots have Bill Belichick calling the shots they will be considered CHEATERS in my book. What happened in that super bowl game where they lost to the Giants? They tried to not cheat for one game and what happened...they lost!

"Golden Boy" dimple chin sucks ass and you have no running game.

The only good thing about the Patriots of Randy Moss. That dude can flat out play.

Otherwise they are all CHEATERS!

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/165712/?searchterm=patriots

[youtube]z7cop4shRXY[/youtube]
 

doitinthewoods

Well-Known Member
So I went to pick up my 4th bag of Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil the other day. Seemed the same as the other 3 bags I've purchased...until I started using it.

The first thing I noticed was the smell. It is WAY more pungent than normal...almost like a strong bark smell. I thought 'probably not a big deal'...

Then I scooped some out and into my 7" square pots, and immediately noticed the color was different...much more gray in hue than the nice black color of the other 3 bags. I thought 'ok, this is odd'...

Then I transplanted my plants to the new soil and tried to water it. This was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. The water wouldn't absorb into the soil...it just pooled on top. And then after it finally did absorb, the soil felt soggy...not moistened like it normally does after watering, but SOGGY. Like walking through a puddle in a field that you can't really see, but once you step in it your up to your ankles in muck SOGGY.

This all happened on Friday, right before I left town for the weekend, and I just returned last night, so I haven't had a chance to call them yet. But this is my 4th bag of the stuff, and it is clearly NOT what Ocean Forest usually is/should be.

Maybe the bag I got was old? It was near the top on a pallet stacked about 4 feet high...

Honestly it seems like a problem with Fox Farms and the ingredients they used in this particular mixture of Ocean Forest. Usually the soil soaks the water right up (presumably from the peat or vermiculite or whatever they are supposed to be using) but not with this batch.

I just attempted to plant some cuttings in the soil and found the problem to be even more severe than I thought. I usually like to mist the top of the soil and the cutting together before fully watering it in, just to keep the soil from moving around too much during watering. Well now THE MIST WATER IS POOLING ON THE TOP OF THE SOIL. The damn soil can't even absorb 1 tablespoon of water applied via misting!

I love Ocean Forest...it has been a crucial part of my operation...but if someone doesn't replace this bag of SH*T I'm never using it again. Period.

They don't open until 830 PST so I'll update this thread once I've spoken with them. They are about to hear from one pissed off customer...:cuss:
Interesting, we possibly got our bags from the same place, and I got a bag last week. I opened it today, and it looked fine to me. Maybe you just got a bad bag.

Also, I've been hearing of people complaining about high nitrogen levels in recent bags of oceans forest.
 

Jerry Garcia

Well-Known Member
I've got some soil ph testers I'll use on the new and old soils and do a little comparison of my own.

I took my bag of soil back today and picked up a bag of biobizz light-mix. Never used it before, but it seems fine. I'm going to add some worm castings and maybe some guano...
 

cowboylogic

Well-Known Member
As long the Patriots have Bill Belichick calling the shots they will be considered CHEATERS in my book. What happened in that super bowl game where they lost to the Giants? They tried to not cheat for one game and what happened...they lost!

"Golden Boy" dimple chin sucks ass and you have no running game.

The only good thing about the Patriots of Randy Moss. That dude can flat out play.

Otherwise they are all CHEATERS!

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/165712/?searchterm=patriots

[youtube]z7cop4shRXY[/youtube]
All Teams cheat. They just got ratted out because they are so good. Guess you forgot about Welker. The toughest whiteboy in football. As far as the Superbowl goes, I look at it from 2 standpoints. 1st and most important, the Giants just wanted it more. 2nd the Tynes helmet catch, kinda goes back to wanting it and what the football gods wanted. Anyways, its SWEET finally talking a little smack her on RIU. Next year Jerry, we are def going to have a RIU fantasy league. What ya think? Peace Bro
 

Jerry Garcia

Well-Known Member
I'm definitely in for an RIU fantasy league. I'm in 4 this year, but who can't use another league?

And I'm always down to talk some football! How about them #5 Cincinnati Bearcats! I'm a bigger Ohio State fan though myself...
 

Jerry Garcia

Well-Known Member
I've never needed to add anything until they changed the formula. That's my problem...I love the original blend I had been using, but this new stuff is just plain different. I want the good California bark and not this east coast pine garbage they've replaced it with.

And I always felt there was enough perlite, but this new stuff appeared to have about half of the original.
 

theloadeddragon

Well-Known Member
they even switched things here in Cali........ Fox Farms used to be an all around stand up company...... the last two years I have seen the over all general quality of their products go down..... its sad..... they still have some great products.... but I am merging more and more away from them........
 

CSI Stickyicky

Well-Known Member
I've never needed to add anything until they changed the formula. That's my problem...I love the original blend I had been using, but this new stuff is just plain different. I want the good California bark and not this east coast pine garbage they've replaced it with.

And I always felt there was enough perlite, but this new stuff appeared to have about half of the original.
I live about half way in between cali and SC, so not sure which FFOF i have, but i did mix extra perlite in with mine. The guy at the store said a lot of people have been switching over to Biobizz, because the FFOF gets "muddy" and clumps up. I still went with the FFOF, and just added extra perlite. I know it should come with enough to begin with, but adding extra really did help with the muddiness and clumping. (and having all the perlite gives you the ability to overwater.)
As for the dish soap idea, Jorge Cervantes gave me the impression in his DVD that adding a little dish soap in the beginning was pretty common.
Its good to hear that Fox Farms is concerned about the problem, and wants to make it right.
 

farmer2424

Well-Known Member
nice double j, the mountains are blue and the trees are green, shit don't lie. still think im gonna use OF instead of roots for my organic indoor, hope ff doesnt give me a bad batch
 

obijohn

Well-Known Member
I know this thread is old, but I googled for the same problem and this came up. I bought two bags of Ocean Forest in May, and didn't need to open the second one until I needed to transplant to bigger pots. It was clumpy, wet and possibly moldy, but the major thing is it was full of red bark (or it turned that color) I broke it up and used it, hasn't killed any plants. But it will not absorb water worth a fuck. The top will not moisten, it pools at the bottom and drains
 

The Gram Reaper

Well-Known Member
Where did you have it stored the last few months? It may be the storage conditions. Not sure why its full of red bark, though.

There are a lot of soil companies out there, now is a good chance to get away from Monsanto and try something different.
 
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