FFOF ( Fox Farms Ocean Forest ) made Simple - Autoflower

Agree 100% with 420. 3 years ago I stumbled in here with a bag of FFOF 5 bottles of fancy nutes , ph test kit blah, blah. I was running Autos under LED lights for the first time. I had pretty well screwed the pooch and the cat on grow 1 and needed help. This page helped me immensely. I still have plenty to learn but ive upped my game alot. BB has gotten me away from the bottles and more into the dry amendments. And the Pee, but thats another story. This method will get you over the finish line. Tweak your own recipe as your plants show you what they need and watch them flourish. I might not have perfect plants but they are easy as shit to grow like this and very forgiving. Oh by the way, welcome to RIU! You came to the right spot. Most here are just good people willing to help. Heres mine, nothing but ffof with premixed dry amendments with 1 topdress and some unbottled nutes straight out the tap. Goodluck! Youre about to have a helluva good time.

Hockey0000325 said:

one last question because I definitely don’t want to drive you guys and gals crazy, I want to eliminate any chance of bugs from the soil, so do I mix neem meal in with all soil, or do I sprinkle on top layer?! Sorry for so many questions, just trying to stay out of pest and nute trouble!!! Haha. I have in hand FFHF, FFOF, Great White, General Hydro trio which I bought for Coco, Perlite, and my ppm of f tap water is coming out at 108. Should I pick up earth worm casting?! And how about your most recommended dry fert?!

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IMO run it very simply first - mix up a container with about a 1/3 FFOF / Perlite bump and dash of Great white - ADD FFHF to fill remainder.
Add Neem meal as a top dress ( till thru first few inches ) . Depending on container size ( approximately 1/4 cup ) but mix it in thoroughly.

It is mostly a deterrent but if there are some gnat issues (it happens in bag ) you may need to do further treatment .
Yellow sticky pads around plant is an easy first defense for adults. An easy preventative measure.

By running a simple approach upfront , there will be less chance of mistakes ( like over fertilization).
After a few weeks - that soil may need a bump …. By way of dry fertilizer or fresh top soil watered in.

Budzbuddha said:

IMO run it very simply first - mix up a container with about a 1/3 FFOF / Perlite bump and dash of Great white - ADD FFHF to fill remainder.
Add Neem meal as a top dress ( till thru first few inches ) . Depending on container size ( approximately 1/4 cup ) but mix it in thoroughly.

It is mostly a deterrent but if there are some gnat issues (it happens in bag ) you may need to do further treatment .
Yellow sticky pads around plant is an easy first defense for adults. An easy preventative measure.

By running a simple approach upfront , there will be less chance of mistakes ( like over fertilization).
After a few weeks - that soil may need a bump …. By way of dry fertilizer or fresh top soil watered in.

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This is pretty much what i do. I just use promix organic or something else similar to cut the ffof. Ive found that a large boxfan helps keep gnats grounded. Worm castings, Flower Girl and more FFOF top dressed at week 4. Pee when extra nutes needed. Been doing this for several runs and it works. You definately have shown the way. Thanks!

CarolinaPothead said:

This is pretty much what i do. I just use promix organic or something else similar to cut the ffof. Ive found that a large boxfan helps keep gnats grounded. Worm castings, Flower Girl and more FFOF top dressed at week 4. Pee when extra nutes needed. Been doing this for several runs and it works. You definately have shown the way. Thanks!

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so what do we mean by pee?! My wife may start looking at me funny. Lol

Hockey0000325 said:

so what do we mean by pee?! My wife may start looking at me funny. Lol

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Welcome …….




PISS PORTAL HERE ( link )

Hockey0000325 said:

so what do we mean by pee?! My wife may start looking at me funny. Lol

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Man you just have to go to the thread. It sounds crazy, i know. But, its solid and BB has even layed out the science that backs it up. I could elaborate but it aint my place. I trust the man so i trusted his methods. He hasnt let me down yet. And weve all had a damned good time discussing it. And alot of laughs. My wife always looks at me funny when i start " grow talk" . She likes to smoke the weed though and its been great. Best part is its free.

I ordered so much stuff I forgot half of what I had coming lol. I have dr earths bloom booster Flower Girl on way, along with the Neem Meal

Hockey0000325 said:

I ordered so much stuff I forgot half of what I had coming lol. I have dr earths bloom booster Flower Girl on way, along with the Neem Meal

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Sounds good that you are eager to succeed. Just dont try to do too much at once. @Budzbuddha has made a good efficient game plan. Its great and fun experimenting but for the first go id keep it simple. Fortunately, as you see, the man responds pretty quick to questions. It sounds like youre off to a good start. Good luck and keep us posted eh?

Just checking in … everybody cool ?

ok bye.

Osiyo! How's it going everyone! I am new to the forum, but have been following for a while. Not a new grower. Been growing for several years. All outdoors and up until recently, all photo plants.
@Budzbuddha it is nice to meet you. I have been following some of your threads and grows for a while. Very nice grows i might add. I like the way you also like to keep things simple. But I just wanted to chime in on this. I am not trying to toot Fox Farms horn anymore, but it is really hard to beat a soil mix of FFOF/HF. Here is what I am using as a mix (which is pretty similar to yours). And this is for auto grows, which i just started growing last year finally. Until then i have only grew photos. And i have a little bit different variation that i have been using for them. Save that for another thread.
But for a 5gal. fabric bag,
The bottom layer i am using 3 gal. of just FFOF, for the top layer I use 1 1/2gal. of a 50/50 mix of HF/OF with about a cup of good quality earthworm castings mixed in(to give the myco in the HF a little jumpstart boost), and to finish i will start my seeds in a 1/2 gal. pot using only HF, and i will leave a spot in the middle of the bag where it will be. When i transplant i dust the inside of the hole and the roots of the plant with Xtreme Mycos WP. (just my preference) Great White and Big Foot myco are also very good as well. And then after transplant i use nothing but water out of the tap, not ph'd or de-clorinated, for about 5 to 6 weeks, and then i will scratch in about a big handful of ewc or just top dress with fresh OF if i have any left. That is pretty much it. Oh, i would like to mention that i add about 10% perlite in all of the soil mix. And as far as any outside nutes i was going to try to use none for these autos, but last year when they started flowering good, the ladies started showing a few deficiencies. So I gave them a few waterings of Maxibloom, and that straightened them up. Now keep in mind these are outdoors also. Nutes get used up faster from my experience. But just having to mix up some mb a few times isn't that awful. It is still super simple imo. And the plants have did great. I am on my 2nd auto grow this year. Going to be doing 2 harvests of autos, 4 plants each run. We are allowed 6. But i also have 2 photos going as well. I will be starting a grow journal shortly.
And I am growing in NE Oklahoma. Right in the heart of tornado alley. And the last 2-3 weeks has shown it in our state. So growing outdoors here is not a very easy task to take on in the first place. No reason to make it more difficult by making grows more complicated than they need to be.
Sorry for the long reply. Lol

Glad to be apart of the group. Seems like a lot of good growers in here with a lot of knowledge. I look forward to maybe being able to help someone else if they have issues as well as learning more myself.

Happy to welcome you to RIU. Budz is a very knowledgeable grower. I can tell you from my own experience using his soil methods are the #1 reason I went from photos to autos. It is so simple. With that said, even Budz will tell anyone that please if you come across some tweets in ideas of soil preparation, please feel free to share your experiences. I tried to go this last run using feathermeal unstead of bloodmeal. ( My thought was slower release of N so it may last the entire run) update: might work great for outdoor run as you say, outdoors goes through nutes faster. Trust me not the same with feathermeal indoors. But, if we don't try we will never learn. Happy to meet you. Have a great day!

Budzbuddha said:

Just checking in … everybody cool ?

ok bye.

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I'm doing great so far, aside from my pot growing. I can't get rid of these dang red/purple streaks in the stems. Been growing for a few years and cant grow weed that I would really want to smoke... its embarrassing at this point how I can't dial in a good crop. I'm indoors, promix, leds, humidifiers, fans, dehumidifiers when applicable, using maxiseries dry powder. Maxi grow for veg and Maxi bloom for flower.

I use tap water that is less than 100 ppm so I add calmag until it reaches 150-200 ppms (4-5ml per gal.) I add that to every watering. Maybe I shouldn't if it sits in the promix or is stored in the plant itself for later use.... I read to use calmag every watering if using RO water. I've been treating my tap as if it were RO because it is under 100 ppms. I water in at 5.8 ph and my runoff is about 6.2, runoff in late veg is 1300 ppms.

I'm at my wits end. Considering changing my medium to coco next run to see if that helps. I'm stuck.

Will post pics tomorrow for a better idea

P.P.S Just realized this was a Fox Farm/Auto thread. I'm doing neither but still appreciate any advice if it can help!

TankHankerous said:

I'm doing great so far, aside from my pot growing. I can't get rid of these dang red/purple streaks in the stems. Been growing for a few years and cant grow weed that I would really want to smoke... its embarrassing at this point how I can't dial in a good crop. I'm indoors, promix, leds, humidifiers, fans, dehumidifiers when applicable, using maxiseries dry powder. Maxi grow for veg and Maxi bloom for flower.

I use tap water that is less than 100 ppm so I add calmag until it reaches 150-200 ppms (4-5ml per gal.) I add that to every watering. Maybe I shouldn't if it sits in the promix or is stored in the plant itself for later use.... I read to use calmag every watering if using RO water. I've been treating my tap as if it were RO because it is under 100 ppms. I water in at 5.8 ph and my runoff is about 6.2, runoff in late veg is 1300 ppms.

I'm at my wits end. Considering changing my medium to coco next run to see if that helps. I'm stuck.

Will post pics tomorrow for a better idea

P.P.S Just realized this was a Fox Farm/Auto thread. I'm doing neither but still appreciate any advice if it can help!

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Post some pics …

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.

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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.

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what about mixing light warrior and ffof for seedlings?

hoodzy420 said:

what about mixing light warrior and ffof for seedlings?

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Absolutely. I would even add a couple cups to any container soil.

Budzbuddha said:

Absolutely. I would even add a couple cups to any container soil.

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could i run that the whole grow? should i add extra perlite? Im going to add dolomite lime as well

hoodzy420 said:

could i run that the whole grow? should i add extra perlite? Im going to add dolomite lime as well

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For seedlings - its good . I like mixing some in ( when i have it ) with FFOF . FFOF can do most if the feeding alone. I wouldn’t add dolomite lime since FFOF is already buffered.

But , your choice.

I’ve heard that near the end of flowering the ffof runoff with me a bit low and the lime will help. Is this not true?

hoodzy420 said:

I’ve heard that near the end of flowering the ffof runoff with me a bit low and the lime will help. Is this not true?

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I tend not to do any runoff checks. I do interval topdressing either with fresh soil or a couple of tablespoons of dry fertilizer.
You are not measuring anything. Plant's host medium is being replenished - elements the plant already used.

I keep plant fed this way til end .... plant will use only what it wants.

No adding this or that. No flushing , No sweeteners or other unnecessary things.

Adding fresh soil as a top dress also brings in fresh buffering - even after chop i can recycle some of that soil and put into new solo cup germinations or save what i can ... recycle it with cups of new fresh FFOF and back into a new container .

I only add MYCO and EWC to this recycled mix .