Fox Farms Ocean Forest Rant

Well, well, well. Im a first time grower and everything was going fine until just about 2 days ago. I was looking at my plants and then notice something crawling on my pots and soil. I get all red and furious. I'm in total shock because the LAST thing I need is bug problems. I'm like where did this come from? My room is pretty clean. I dust. I vacuum. So I'm like shit, I have spider mites. I try to kill as many as possible with my hands and picked some out of the soil with a small metal device. I killed maybe 80-100.

Today, I wake up, see the same problem, only worse. I kill all of them that I can see. Pick up my pot, see the roots coming out of the holes and decide its time to transplant. ON TOP OF THAT, I see a larvae, now I'm in total shock, like just staring at my plant for like 15 minutes in disbelief.

Anyways, I open the bag of Fox Farms, take a cups worth, and what do you know? Yea. You guessed it. F'in mites, crawling in the soil. Now, I'm kinda relieved because I know the source of the problem but still. "Top-of-the-line soil"? "Best soil to grow pot in"? "amazing results"? Harmless or not. IT'S DISGUSTING. Im sleeping in the same room as these pests. Just knowing that. 20 minutes later a fucking gnat flies into my hps.

I'm disgusted with Fox Farms and their quality of soil. I researched this, and noticed a ton of people had the same problem. Word of advice, never buy Fox Farms ever again. You'd think a soil that cost me 23 dollars a bag would be a clean plant-friendly soil but no. I don't care whose fault it is. Manufacturer. Store. I don't care. I don't care if some of you experienced great results and never had bugs in your bag of Fox Farms. I feel ripped off.

NOW, I don't have any money left and was wondering if anyone knew any homemade options to get rid of them. I was thinking dumping the remainder of the soil into a large container and just submerging it with water for like an hour. Drown those fuckers. But I have absolutely no clue how to get rid of them from my soil which feeds my plants. HELPPPPPPP

I have heard that lady bugs kill spider mites as well as other pests. I hope thats true because I have them everywhere LOL

Sorry to hear u got bugs not sure how to get rid of them tho

WOW, this outta be interesting. I'm not attacking you in any way, and quite honestly i feel for ya, but this forum is HIGHLY weighted on FF products! I've never used them so I'm definitely not on their band wagon. Did my grow from a mix of organic soil and peat. I would(if it is possible) go to a nursery or a hydro store and get a vegetable safe insecticide.. Good luck bro!

Black flies have been a problem of late with FF but easily handled. First time hearing of spider mites in the bag itself.

Hotwired said:

Black flies have been a problem of late with FF but easily handled. First time hearing of spider mites in the bag itself.

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No, I THOUGHT they were spider mites but they're fungus gnats (I think). Definitely not spider mites. Still disgusting though.

sounds pretty gross I got some ocean forest I'm bout to crack open probably tomorrow but are you sure they're mites? One thing to keep in mind is that fox farm is an organic fertilizer. Here's what's posted on their website
Are your soils sterilized?
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]No, we don’t sterilize our soils because that would kill the very beneficial microbes which are critical in making nutrients available to plants. Your soil should be alive, not sterile! Our mixes contain beneficial fungi and micro-organisms that help plants become more disease resistant and grow healthy root systems. FoxFarm soils and fertilizers are specially formulated to build massive microbe populations.[/FONT]

I hope i don't get any bugs in my fox farm soil but I understand why the soil is not sterilized.

If that's the truth, then that's scary. But i've seen a lot of fox farm hate threads. Fox farm must be going down on quality or some other soil company is in competition with them.

Pipe Dream said:

sounds pretty gross I got some ocean forest I'm bout to crack open probably tomorrow but are you sure they're mites? One thing to keep in mind is that fox farm is an organic fertilizer. Here's what's posted on their website
Are your soils sterilized?
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]No, we don’t sterilize our soils because that would kill the very beneficial microbes which are critical in making nutrients available to plants. Your soil should be alive, not sterile! Our mixes contain beneficial fungi and micro-organisms that help plants become more disease resistant and grow healthy root systems. FoxFarm soils and fertilizers are specially formulated to build massive microbe populations.[/FONT]

I hope i don't get any bugs in my fox farm soil but I understand why the soil is not sterilized.

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From what I noticed, FF Light Warrior is dry, and I haven't seen any bugs (so far), but when I opened the bag of Ocean Forest it was moist, well not like wet moist, but the soil was dark in color and looked very fresh. And these pests love water and moisture so maybe that's it. O and I really don't care what they say, I opened a bag and saw tiny white bugs, larvae today, and 2 gnats so far. My room is clean. My house is clean. If I were you I'd take out a cup of that soil and inspect it thouroughly. Look for tiny white bugs. I mean look real closely. If they're not there then fine but DON'T put your plants in them. For me it was too late, I wasn't expecting bugs and never really looked through the soil before planting my seeds.


"The little gnats you're seeing are probably fungus gnats. They seem to suddenly (and mysteriously) appear out of nowhere soon after watering plants or after opening a fresh bag of potting soil. Adult fungus gnats like to lay their eggs on moist soil. Soon after they are laid, the eggs hatch into larvae, which feed on fungus growing in the damp soil. After a short period of feeding, the larvae pupate and hatch into adult fungus gnats and the cycle starts all over again. In the case of gnats showing up in potting soil, I suspect that the eggs get laid in the soil before it's packaged at the plant. The moisture, the nutrient-rich soil and a lack of air circulation combine to create the perfect conditions for growing fungus"

panterica said:

No, I THOUGHT they were spider mites but they're fungus gnats (I think). Definitely not spider mites. Still disgusting though.

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This is much simpler. Put out about 2 cups of vinegar by your plants and the fungus gnats will be attracted to this and drown themselves. Or, you can go to a home center(if nearby) and get pheromone traps. Either one should rectify your issues.

that's why you let your soil dry in between waterings and get some sticky fly paper up to catch em early. Also some people kill them with pesticeds too. Can't be scared of some worm shit, or some bat poop or some little bugs when your growing organicallyin my opinion as long as it's not a spidermite or an aphid or something than I'd be worried those bugs are actually scary and bears.

Here's what happened to me, I got the fungus gnats myself with FF OF soil.
I had three gallon pots sitting on 3/4" foam insulation, white side up.
One day I had a 3 maybe 4 million young gnats crawling flying all over the damn place.
I noticed that the gnats were very fond of the white foam, they just seemed to hang out there. I grabbed my Home Defence from Lowes and sprayed the foam insulation and the outside of the pots. In less then one week they were all dead, they never had the chance to lay more eggs in the soil. I never put any poison in the soil, never saw another fungus gnat yet ( 6 months + )

Good heads up on the possible issues with FFOF. I buy it at $12 a bag and it works fine, I keep it simple for now. I have not noticed issues with pests so far, but I stay on top of them with semi regular neem sessions and the hot shot no pest in the veg layer. I have had mites before and prevention is the best tactic. Followed next by control, not eradication. Those two spotted spider mites are the worst. Got them once from a clone. Lesson learned

Sub Zero said:

One day I had a 3 maybe 4 million young gnats crawling flying all over the damn place.

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Come on... really?

geddylee.2112 said:

This is much simpler. Put out about 2 cups of vinegar by your plants and the fungus gnats will be attracted to this and drown themselves. Or, you can go to a home center(if nearby) and get pheromone traps. Either one should rectify your issues.

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Thanks, I'll do that in the future if the problem persists. Right now the biggest problem is that the gnats are in the developing stages. very small white dots moving around the soil. I know I can take the remainder of the soil and just put it in the oven and fry them but I don't know how to get rid if them in my pots. I've read of people mixing soap and water together but I just don't wanna kill my plants.

dukeofbaja said:

Good heads up on the possible issues with FFOF. I buy it at $12 a bag and it works fine, I keep it simple for now. I have not noticed issues with pests so far, but I stay on top of them with semi regular neem sessions and the hot shot no pest in the veg layer. I have had mites before and prevention is the best tactic. Followed next by control, not eradication. Those two spotted spider mites are the worst. Got them once from a clone. Lesson learned

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Yea I started noticing them about 2 days after a good watering (3 1/2 weeks into veg). I gave each plant about a water bottle and a half anf I guess the moist conditions exposed them.

sorry to hear your tubbles dude! i tryed to go cheap on my dirt and only payed like 5 bucks for a very big bag of it from a big box store. its prolly fine soil but just not for my needs. so i went to the hydro store today and was chatting to them about my plant trubbles and they said i deff needed new soil. they stock all sorts of soil there including a few differant kings of fox farms. i asked them about it since everyone here gives it great reviews but they said they had alot of ppl say they dont like it, i ended up buying some of there stores custom mix. maybe you have a hydro store localy you can talk to?

panterica said:

Thanks, I'll do that in the future if the problem persists. Right now the biggest problem is that the gnats are in the developing stages. very small white dots moving around the soil. I know I can take the remainder of the soil and just put it in the oven and fry them but I don't know how to get rid if them in my pots. I've read of people mixing soap and water together but I just don't wanna kill my plants.

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Honestly, I know it sucks, but let nature take its course with whats in your pots. Those little bastards will not hurt your plants in any way. They are more of a nuisance then anything else. I've used the vinegar "home remedy", it works.

panterica said:

Thanks, I'll do that in the future if the problem persists. Right now the biggest problem is that the gnats are in the developing stages. very small white dots moving around the soil. I know I can take the remainder of the soil and just put it in the oven and fry them but I don't know how to get rid if them in my pots. I've read of people mixing soap and water together but I just don't wanna kill my plants.

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If you do the vinegar in a cup, put a drop of dish soap in it. this will make the vinegar have no surface tension so the gnats will stand even less of a chance. I also got rid of fungus gnats by spraying my plants with water that had tea tree oil mixed in.

geddylee.2112 said:

Come on... really?

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OK, 1.5 million...