First grow in soil

So, this is my first soil grow. The plant is in FoxFarm Ocean Forest on it's 4th week of veg. I read in so many places that I could simply grow in this soil throughout veg with little worry about nutes and PH. Obviously, there's a deficiency here, but what exactly is my question. I have fed water only until a few days ago when I supplemented with Cal/Mag. I have a bag of Strawberry Fields arriving tomorrow that I plan to use when I transfer from 3gal. to a 5gal pot. I have not monitored PH, but upon the recommendation I've received from people here, I'll be doing that with the next watering. Am I safe assuming I don't need to flush since I've not added any nutes to this soil? Additionally, I also have the three bag Dr. Earth Bloom, Gold and Tomato arriving soon to be used as top dressing. Are there any additional recommendations anyone can offer? I've been using the soil weight method for watering and in the current 3 gallon pot, I'm giving it roughly 1 gallon of water every 5-7 days. The soil did come with gnats, so I have added a layer of DE and a few sticky traps around the plant.

They look like you have been allowing them to sit in runoff
Never good

3 gallon may need a feed on week 4 of veg. I pop my seeds in FFOF in solo cups...then about ten days in, they go in 5 gallons of FFOF. After vegging for 4 weeks i flip. They are getting hungry when i flip. I then do a generous top dress of FFOF as well as Gaia Green dry 2-8-4 bloom. I also do a couple compost teas with good nitrogen at start of flower. Top dress the gaia green again at week 4 of flower, and a couple teas later...thats it.

Also if ur goin dry ammendment, use Recharge...it works

Looks like something going on with the roots.. Maybe too wet or root rot..

ClintSim said:

So, this is my first soil grow. The plant is in FoxFarm Ocean Forest on it's 4th week of veg. I read in so many places that I could simply grow in this soil throughout veg with little worry about nutes and PH. Obviously, there's a deficiency here, but what exactly is my question. I have fed water only until a few days ago when I supplemented with Cal/Mag. I have a bag of Strawberry Fields arriving tomorrow that I plan to use when I transfer from 3gal. to a 5gal pot. I have not monitored PH, but upon the recommendation I've received from people here, I'll be doing that with the next watering. Am I safe assuming I don't need to flush since I've not added any nutes to this soil? Additionally, I also have the three bag Dr. Earth Bloom, Gold and Tomato arriving soon to be used as top dressing. Are there any additional recommendations anyone can offer? I've been using the soil weight method for watering and in the current 3 gallon pot, I'm giving it roughly 1 gallon of water every 5-7 days. The soil did come with gnats, so I have added a layer of DE and a few sticky traps around the plant.
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I can't make out the pot below the plants. Do you have 4 plants in one pot or are there 4 pots?
What kind of water are you using? Distilled or RO water would be a mistake without having added cal/mag from the beginning.

Helluva plant for 4 weeks, needs to dry out, maybe repot. 5 days wasn’t long enough for the soil to dry completely.

Fantastic! You have done a very good job. Carry on!

ClintSim said:

So, this is my first soil grow. The plant is in FoxFarm Ocean Forest on it's 4th week of veg. I read in so many places that I could simply grow in this soil throughout veg with little worry about nutes and PH. Obviously, there's a deficiency here, but what exactly is my question. I have fed water only until a few days ago when I supplemented with Cal/Mag. I have a bag of Strawberry Fields arriving tomorrow that I plan to use when I transfer from 3gal. to a 5gal pot. I have not monitored PH, but upon the recommendation I've received from people here, I'll be doing that with the next watering. Am I safe assuming I don't need to flush since I've not added any nutes to this soil? Additionally, I also have the three bag Dr. Earth Bloom, Gold and Tomato arriving soon to be used as top dressing. Are there any additional recommendations anyone can offer? I've been using the soil weight method for watering and in the current 3 gallon pot, I'm giving it roughly 1 gallon of water every 5-7 days. The soil did come with gnats, so I have added a layer of DE and a few sticky traps around the plant.
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They need food. I'd get the top dressing on it as soon as you can. It will take a bit for that to work though. I also don't wait for the soil to get dry using organics. I try to keep it moist but not soaked. I started in FFOF a few years ago and am still using it. Just added some other stuff since then.

if u jave gnats man treat it with something asap. i bought some natural stuff at my local hyrdo spot or maybe online something natural and mixed with water. takes a few watering to get it going but take care of it asap. definitely get u a good ph pen its very important

Gnats come with many potting mixes. Many ways to handle em. I've noticed that my plants grow. They fly around when I water. Took me awhile to realize that I was popping my plants with bug zapper. High ass was like I'm getting hella flyers. A few days it took. Plants forgave me. Impact was so minimal they felt my intent. I guess I don't trip on em too much. Organic matter for my soil.

Do you have access to better soil than Fox Farms where you're at? That stuff is literal residential compost trash. If you search the forum for "Fox Farms issue" you will find tons of threads with similar looking plants. There are some people that have been growing in Fox Farms Soil for many years with success but in most cases its bad either full of bugs or pot plants just don't do well in it.

calvin.m16 said:

Do you have access to better soil than Fox Farms where you're at? That stuff is literal residential compost trash. If you search the forum for "Fox Farms issue" you will find tons of threads with similar looking plants. There are some people that have been growing in Fox Farms Soil for many years with success but in most cases its bad either full of bugs or pot plants just don't do well in it.

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It's nice to see you at least add some positive vibes to your ffof posts. I bet my ffof grow pics from last year or this grow or any previous year that I used it look healthier than the best plant you ever grew. The reason there are so many growers showing problems with it is because it is the most popular soil used by new growers and most will have issues while learning how to use it. The most common reasons new growers fail with it is because they add something that was not needed, or they have a poor environment, or they don't have experience watering a plant.

Kushash said:

It's nice to see you at least add some positive vibes to your ffof posts. I bet my ffof grow pics from last year or this grow or any previous year that I used it look healthier than the best plant you ever grew. The reason there are so many growers showing problems with it is because it is the most popular soil used by new growers and most will have issues while learning how to use it. The most common reasons new growers fail with it is because they add something that was not needed, or they have a poor environment, or they don't have experience watering a plant.

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You're welcome to post pics. Please do.

calvin.m16 said:

You're welcome to post pics. Please do.

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lol. You 1st. If you show me any plant you grew. Something in veg or mid flower. I'll try to find a few that might compare because I have pics of all stages from seedling to bud but this isn't about buds it's about high brix. You show me something I can't beat in the high brix category, and I'll never say another word.

Greetings,

I now have 3 plants under 2 Quantum boards. One Spider farmer (sf 1000d) and one Maxsisun (mf 2000).

In a 4x2 grow box. They have been established veg plants for about 6 weeks now and I am about to turn them down to 12 & 12hrs. - from a 18 & 6 cycle.

I have been using a hydroponics liquid fert. mix (General Hydroponics) in Roots Organics soil. About 4 days ago 2 of the plants started turning yellow, mainly at the growing tips so I ran a "rapitest soil tester" by luster leaf for PH. also Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potash levels in the potting soil by directions on the label. These plants looked much like yours in the photos.

All "arrows" that I saw pointed to a nitrogen deficiency that was low to very low as shown by colors in a test tube. So I foliar applied and also soil applied low concentrations of nitrogen in the form of Alaskan fish emulsion (5-1-1). It seems to be working after a couple of days since the yellowing has stopped and new growth is coming in green.......

I will take some pics later but I think they may be just wanting more nitro if they are growing strong like yours seem to be................ The same strain of 2 plants is under a 600w HID metal halide bulb and they started to go yellow also so they also got the fish emulsion and it halted the yellowing.

Now I need to figure how much fish is too much and how much is not enough. I would like to add it to the water every time like the hydro nutes. I am looking at 1\2 teaspoon of emulsion per gallon of water along with the hydro nutes........

But I am now convinced it was a shortage of available nitrogen......... by results of that test.

Best regards and these LED lights are a veritable trip in themselves. They may be inducing a more nitrogen liking late veg type plant or just growing the plant "faster" or both which makes for the need of more nitrogen in the later stages of veging and early flowering ..........

jus sayin (to be continued) - and fungus gnats are no strangers to me either. I would run a simple soil test for nutes on those darlings

calvin.m16 said:

Do you have access to better soil than Fox Farms where you're at? That stuff is literal residential compost trash. If you search the forum for "Fox Farms issue" you will find tons of threads with similar looking plants. There are some people that have been growing in Fox Farms Soil for many years with success but in most cases its bad either full of bugs or pot plants just don't do well in it.

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Bold claim.
What soil would you recommend?
Currently on my 3rd run in FFOF+
I am no expert and not a beginner either.
Do you sell bottles?

Does the yellow top look familiar? I am not saying nitrogen is the sure answer for yours but that is the case for me with these plants.

1st pic- seedling and veg box with clones under the domes. The one larger plant is yellowed and
you can see how it compares to other plants in 8 inch clay pots that were not placed under
the LED lights.
It grew fast and was in a small pot so it was my indicator for the larger cloth grow bags. And
so it yellowed first before the others.

2nd pic- A top on the larger yellowed plant shown above.

3rd pic- The LED grow box

4th pic- The HID box

5th pic- The test kit for PH and nutes

yo

peperonia said:

if u jave gnats man treat it with something asap. i bought some natural stuff at my local hyrdo spot or maybe online something natural and mixed with water. takes a few watering to get it going but take care of it asap. definitely get u a good ph pen its very important

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Very good job has been done so far. Carry on!