when should i add fox farm "grow big" ?

joedan890

Member
hi guys, this is my first grow im using fox farm happy frog mixed with about 30% perlite. i started following the fox farm feeding schedule after letting them grow with water for the first week. After a few a days i notices a couple spots that looked like they were burning so i flushed them and didnt feed for a few days. then when i did feed i gave them 50% of the scheduled amount and they seem to be fine.

the guy in my local hydro shop told me to not even feed them any nutes for the first 30 days. my plants are now 2.5 weeks old and the feeding schedule said to introduce "grow big" at week 2.
should i give them a 50% mix and watch them carefully? also i goofed and bought the hydro fox farm nutes which are all the same besides the "grow big" which is 3-2-6 instead of 6-4-4. so if i went with a 50% mix id be giving them much lower then scheduled in the first two values but about 75% in the last one.

what would you guys do ? any advice is appreciated

View attachment 2901765
 

LoRd MeGaTR0N31

Well-Known Member
Never follow what the bottle label says far as how much to feed. Always start at 1/4 of a dose rather be safe then sorry. When I was using bottle nutes I always started at 1/4 for first 2 feedings then to 1/2 for 3 more feedings then full dose some strains at this point might not even want a full dose. Just read your ladies if they are getting light green on new growth then time to bump up nutes. Less is more Don't learn the hard way like I did. Also I did feed, water, water, feed, water, water, feed
 

RetiredMatthebrute

Well-Known Member
if your using happy frog soil you shouldnt need to feed for at least 4 weeks if not more. i know when i buy nutes and get a grow and bloom formula the grow bottle lasts 10x longer than the bloom (when growing in FF soil) because i never used it...maybe a light feeding towards the end of veg and a small amount in the first couple weeks of flower to give em what they need for the stretch....

i say if they look good then just plain water.
 

dannyboy602

Well-Known Member
hi guys, this is my first grow im using fox farm happy frog mixed with about 30% perlite. i started following the fox farm feeding schedule after letting them grow with water for the first week. After a few a days i notices a couple spots that looked like they were burning so i flushed them and didnt feed for a few days. then when i did feed i gave them 50% of the scheduled amount and they seem to be fine.

the guy in my local hydro shop told me to not even feed them any nutes for the first 30 days. my plants are now 2.5 weeks old and the feeding schedule said to introduce "grow big" at week 2.
should i give them a 50% mix and watch them carefully? also i goofed and bought the hydro fox farm nutes which are all the same besides the "grow big" which is 3-2-6 instead of 6-4-4. so if i went with a 50% mix id be giving them much lower then scheduled in the first two values but about 75% in the last one.

what would you guys do ? any advice is appreciated

View attachment 2901765
add a tbsp. lime/1 gallon for Ca and Mg....have a nice day
 

aeroman

Well-Known Member
the guy in my local hydro shop told me to not even feed them any nutes for the first 30 days. my plants are now 2.5 weeks old and the feeding schedule said to introduce "grow big" at week 2.
This is a common mistake caused by most feeding charts doing an absolutely crap job of explaining how to measure weeks.

Now to you or I or most sane people, we tend to think of weeks as starting when the plant does, right? I plant a seed, see it sprout, and start counting? Nope, not by most charts. Many of them start at what they call "maturity". So you've got to get through the seedling stage and the juvenile stage before you're supposed to start counting weeks.

One of the reasons I hate and won't use pre-ferted soil is that it is such a PITA to figure out when the nutes that came with the soil are running out so you can start adding more yourself. I much prefer to use a soilless mix so I know exactly how much the plants are eating because I know how much is available in the first place.

Anyway, your plant looks big enough for light feeding, just keep it light. I always recommend starting out at quarter strength and working your way up from there if the plants look hungry. Just don't fall for the "if some is good, more is better" mistake of trying to make your plants grow faster by giving them more nutrients. It only works if the plants are being underfed, and then only to a point. There's a range where small increases or decreases produce very little actual results, and then that line where suddenly you're overfeeding and doing a lot more harm than the same amount of underfeeding would do.

Think of it like a building: your plant will build some apartments even if it doesn't have enough tenants to fill them all. If you then provide tenants (nutrients) it can rapidly fill that out. But if you send it more people than it can build housing for, those little ghetto rats start wrecking the place because they're nasty little bastards. Your plant can recover, but it takes a lot more work to fix up the damage that's been done (at least what damage can even be fixed in the first place) and then get back on track building more mass. It's much better to underfeed than overfeed. The leaves will start to look a little pale long before you're actually holding back your growth potential by a significant amount.
 
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