FFOF ( Fox Farms Ocean Forest ) made Simple - Autoflower

Budzbuddha said:

OK ... late night and wanted to get this up .

Tip : Use similar peat based soil with FFOF when layering. Many problems occur with those using coco mixes ( example 70/30 ratio ).
Seen too many grows run into ph drift fluctuations since coco needs one way and soil another. Keep the base soil the same .

Here is a version for solo cup grows / seedling starts ( plug transplant ) .....
Regular red solo either alone or as an outer shell with clear solo cup inside ( in case you like seeing the roots grow ).
I used these on some cup comps but be aware that most cup contests here on RIU seem a bit like kindergarten with some growers.
I was floored by the Overthinking and EXCESS bottle feeds for a Stupid Cup ! You can get some decent cup grows from this layering
method.

View attachment 4420078View attachment 4420077View attachment 4420081
View attachment 4420080
View attachment 4420079View attachment 4420081

Version 1

View attachment 4420084

Pretty self explanatory.... this a dry fert enhanced mix . You can use Megacrop / Dr.Earth life 5/5/5 / Gaia green / Flower Girl or myco inoculant .
1 tablespoon ( 1-3 gallon pot ) -
2 - 3 tablespoon for 5 gallon

This will feed for quite awhile and will be perfect for auto grows ( 90 days )
Top dress FFOF as needed later in grow ( optional )

Version 2

This an all FFOF BASE except of ( light seedling mix core ) with rooting powder or myco at bottom. Perfect for straight to seed planting / clone / rooter plug , etc.
Emerging seedling has a mild “ sandbox “ to start grow then allow acclimation before FFOF .
Less shock to young seedlings instead of right into FFOF alone . Plant containers can be plastic , fabric , airpots , bags or whatever.

View attachment 4420083

Hope this helps .... goodnight.

Click to expand...

Hawaiitoday said:

Thanks for the awesome thread - learned a ton. Unfortunately, I had already planted several white widow in 5 gallon pots for an outdoor grow before I found it. Because nobody sells FF light warrior here, I used Roots Organic Micro Greens instead. I layered with FFOF in several combos. (Dumb, I now know).

Week 6 now. I top-dressed with FFOF and watered in the ph 6.3 to 6.5 range and tested the run-off in 2 plants last watering. One tested 6.3 but the one with more of the roots organic (top half was 50/50 combo, bottom half was FFOF) tested at 5.9. I thought about changing ph watered in to 5.9 but that means that the FFOF ph requirements sections would be way off. Any suggestions? (Trying not to screw up this plant as it’s my best one and half of the others are really weak due to my errors).

Click to expand...

Budzbuddha said:

Top feed time !

Even tho I’m running autos on this regiment doesn’t mean regs can’t be done either .... just space according to stages of grow .
A good topfeed will continue on for a couple more weeks with watering between . The myco bump really does the work as I try to keep the microbial life thriving. You can obviously use whatever brand of myco you like ( recharge / Xtreme Mykos / Root magic , etc. )

Even a bag of FOX FARMS Light Warrior works wonders as an innoculant ....
TIP : Buy bag of Light Warrior .... open bag of FFOF ( 1.5 cu ft ) , dump 4 cups of LW into FFOF .... mix well , add about 5 cups of perlite. Mix again ...... spray a little water into it . Close and store.

You are basically charging it up for use . You can even dump all of the above into rectangular tote with lid and store.
One little trick , I do for large mixes is in said tote but ...... dump a flat beer in or yeast packet . Close lid and store.
This is what I do to compost piles to kick the microbial into gear .... sometimes you see the stringers forming.

I may do a thread on this ...... FFOF is fantastic as a medium to tweak ( slightly ).

Anyways today is top dress day. I mix the perlite , great white , and slightly dampen soil. Then I scoop it on top.
No measuring just even coverage.

View attachment 4419477View attachment 4419478View attachment 4419479

Happy Growing

Click to expand...

Budzbuddha said:

This thread was created to help those who seem to overthink the ease of use of this highly ammended bag soil. I see many growers both new and experienced seem to post “ issues “ when trying to run this medium.

I am merely showing a simple no frills method of container / bag grows for autos. Since feeding requirements will be for average 90 ( + or - ) day average for autoflower growth , this will fit it perfectly.

No multi bottle nonsense ... No special water requirements ( use tap ) ... No boosters

FFOF is one of the most complete “ off the shelf “ bagged medium one can by ..... ready to use alone.
Other growers I talked with , mentioned regional differences among stock.

Ingredients: Composted forest humus, sphagnum peat moss, Pacific Northwest sea-going fish emulsion, crab meal, shrimp meal, earthworm castings, sandy loam, perlite, bat guano, granite dust, Norwegian kelp, and oyster shell (for pH adjustment).

Medium is prebuffered to 6.3 .

View attachment 4395504

I will list 2 versions of soil setup .......

1. Plain FFOF soil run only
2. Pelletized dry nute ammended ( self feed )


Begin with the final container size you wish to run ...... I run 1 gallon SOG bags and 3/5 gallon plastic black or air pots ( air prune ). Smart bags will work also. You will be planting directly to pot. You can also grow a seedling in a solo with a seed starter mix and plant as plug into this medium too. But for this , I will show you that FFOF is not quite as hot to seedlings as some report.

You will NOT be feeding the seedling at all with outside Nutes. It will feed on its own from the medium only and will acclimate “ faster and easier “ than dropping more Nutes on top of this charged medium.

Water :

TAP ( whether allowed to vape off 24 hours or not ) it will work. No RO , distilled , holy water , unicorn sweat or other “ special “ water sources. Your ONLY REQUIREMENT is to PH correctly.
PH range for entire autoflower run : 6.3 to 6.5 ( No more No less ) .

Soil is pretty aerated on its own but works much better with added perlite. I tend to shoot for 25% minimum more by volume of medium used.

I am using a simple 1 gallon grow bag for a SOG grow of 9 plants for a tent I am running. However adjust your volume of perlite to container size you choose.

View attachment 4395521 View attachment 4395522

Your mix should resemble something like this ....

View attachment 4395524

This bag is half filled AND HERE IS WHERE YOU CAN RUN TWO DIFFERENT VARIATIONS.

1. Fill remainder with same mix .
2. Add a tablespoon of Dry Fertilizer ( Dr. Earth 5-5-5 or megacrop 1 tsp ).

When running FFOF solo .... I merely MIST this half fill with water to hydrate it , then cover fill to top.

For Dry Ammend : I am using Dr. Earth LIFE fertilizer ( 5-5-5 ) or Megacrop
This method is similar to Canucks grow method using dry fertilizer and coco grows he does with autoflowers.

Note : I found Dr. Earth LIFE at the 99¢ ( half off ) in 1 gallon bags ! .... needless to say I grabbed a few .
Dr. Earth Fruit and Veg and Flower Girl are both good options also.

For some LED grows : CalMag “ may “ be needed occasionally and will only need be added 1tsp per gallon of water before use.

View attachment 4395530 View attachment 4395531 View attachment 4395533
View attachment 4395541

FFOF by itself will carry an auto for weeks on its own ........ on water only. The pelletized feed will self charge and supplement myco as plant moves thru bloom. The alternate method is merely top dressing FFOF in those grows running bag FFOF only.

I do not flush or leach medium upon final weeks ..... I merely continue watering requirements.
NO FRILLS .

You will find the plants prefer feeding on its own terms instead of dumping a brew all over it .

Just keep your PH in range and you will see how well this bagged soil does.

Hope this helps. PEACE.

Click to expand...

STEEZMCGHEE said:

First post here, Whats good ya'll? I'm on my first grow. I found this thread while looking for a guide for using FFOF with autos. Before I found it I had been using bottled water and the plants were looking fine. I started using PHed tap water a couple weeks ago, now they look really messed up lol. I've heard over-watering, nitrogen deficiency, and one my best bud IRL told me that its probably due to a very high PPM in the tap here. Check them out let me know. They were planted on the 24th seed straight into medium. I figured they might need to get out of those tiny pots but I only had enough soil to transplant the one that looks worse, more soil on the way.

Click to expand...

Budzbuddha said:

Part 2 :

Here are some other variations I have tried and do not mind sharing. These were based on items I had on hand at the time , so I experimented. The results were excellent. I’m sure depending on your own blends it may work as well ( Kellogg’s / Black Magic / sunshine ) .

1. 75% FFOF / perlite - 25% HF Potting ( brown bag ) not strawberry fields.

2. 50% / 50% mix of FFOF / PERLITE / EB STONE 420 ( LOVE This soil )
EB Stone has humic , dolomite , coir and pumice. It rounds out the FFOF completely.
This is hands down my best blend over ANY supersoil. I use for breeding fems or moms.
But will work fantastically for auto grows. I highly recommend this version. EB is like FFOF “ mild “ and also keeps the same aerated consistency of medium.

View attachment 4395585

Mentioned above was silica ..... which can help in environment / grow area conditions with heat and plant health. It does provide cell strength , vigor and help fight PM and other fungal issues. And am sure one could mix in or simply spray ( Foliar ).

Another tip :
Yeast . Simple dry packet sprinkled on top of “ half filled “ container will promote better mycrobial activity and aids in composting. It helps build roots also. I used to pour a couple of beers on a compost pile of kitchen scraps and old harvests .

Happy gardening.

Click to expand...

Bullmark said:

I really wanna keep this one going....what a treasure. And the OP is one helluva kind individual for being so generous with his time. Thank you.
I just back into growing after a 25 yr hiatus and knew nothing about the indoor process.
Back in Mid October I started 2 autos in straight FFOF.....didn’t know it was sometimes hot and might burn seedlings. They grew just fine.
Two weeks later I decided I had room for another so I added a third plant.
For the next month or so I only watered and they grew fine except for some yellow tips.
My light is HLG’s new 320XL LED and it’s nice. If I had known and followed their advice for output settings and distance from the canopy I would have gotten even better results.
For the first 5-6 weeks, up until the plants started flowering, I gave nothing but water and a small dose of fish sh!t....then, of course, I decided to introduce some of the FF trio. The bottles are so pretty and colorful. Fortunately I only gave a fraction of the feeding schedule.
Fast forward to beginning of week 11 and the plants are approaching the finish line. The third plant that was added after 2 weeks started flowering the same time as the other two and couldn’t be more different...even though they’re the same strain from the same seed pack.
Only in the past 2 weeks have I given anywhere close to a full dose of the trio, and although I don’t think they harmed anything, I do notice that the buds don’t smell like they used to when I put my nose an inch away. They almost have a chemical smell. If I pinch a bud and smell my fingers it’s still that skunky tart pungent odor, but I wonder if the tiger bloom and co have altered the aroma....??
Sorry for the long message, but I’m wondering if I could give the girls one last feeding with a nice organic tea of some sort?? They look like they are 2-3 weeks from being in the harvest window....to me at least. After this thread and learning a lot over the past 4 months, I hate to dump anymore chemicals on my plants.
Pics are from yesterday.....one of the 3 plants has shown some yellowing and spotting, but the other two are still green top to bottom. And you’ll see from the 3 individual bud pics that all 3 plants are at slightly differing stages of completion. One plant looks like it could be good to go in a week or two. One needs a tad longer, and the last is noticeably behind (it’s the one that has the yellowing). This issue raises A question, since the only drying place I have is in my grow closet. Oh well, gotta get them to that stage first.
What would you do for the last 3 weeks if these were your plants?? View attachment 5056197View attachment 5056198View attachment 5056199View attachment 5056200View attachment 5056197View attachment 5056198View attachment 5056199View attachment 5056200

Click to expand...