FoxFarm Ocean Forest Soil draining too fast!

yeah i think it really depends on how often you can visit your garden....but without question fast draining is defiantly a good thing

I could see if you could only visit your garden once a day at most then that could be a problem. I check my plants twice a day, so they could never really get that far dry, I'll see them all flopped over within 4 or so hours of them flopping.

yeah the more you can visit the better

TechnoMage said:

Try this next time. Give the plant a little water and let it sit for 20 minutes or so, then go back and give it the rest of the water. I think you'll find the soil holds water a lot better. I've been using FFOF for about 5 years now and it seems to contract more as it dries. However, if you give the water slowly over time I think you'll find it holds as much or more than other soils. On days I water, I usually water several times over a period of a couple of hours.

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Bingo, and as the Wetdog mentioned sphagnum peat becomes particularly hydrophobic once it has dried out substantially. This is also why you should have somewhat moist soil at all times, or in other words not wait until your soil has dried out and hardened up before watering.

A horticultural wetting agent like Earth Juice Assist will hasten absorption. It's yucca-based and other brands of yucca extract are sold for the purpose. Dish soap is a wetting agent (surfactant) but those likely contain anti-microbial or other agents that aren't good for soil biota\beneficials. A drop or two of Dr. Bronner's Magic baby soap (unscented) is probably safe to use.

PeacefulKid1992 said:

you can get them lil white rocks that look like crack n mix 30% of it i think its called perlite idk i never used that before i got all ffof.

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The only thing(s) OF might need, in my opinion, is some coco coir, dolomitic limestone and\or pulverized eggshell (especially if blooming soon). Balance the coir out with a reasonable amount of vermiculite, and a bit more perlite if you must. Some fresh EWC wouldn't hurt either... but I am of the mind that 30% more perlite is over-kill. Too much and unproperly mixed it can create air pockets\dry spots, will have to be watered more frequently and end up requiring more nutrients as well. Vermiculite and humus both hold water well and have measurable CEC (they hold\buffer nutrients). Although humus is characteristically better for plants in terms of holding onto nutrients for later absorption and as an inoculant, etc. too much humus has the opposite effect as too much perlite in that it will lead to soil that is too compact. Vermiculite and coco coir both retain moisture as well as air.

Whenever preparing soil for transplant mist it down before it even goes into the container if you can. A pump sprayer (with a 1+ gal capacity) is the best instrument for this. You can fill it up, add in a drop of wetting agent if available, some molasses, liquid kelp or anything else you'd like to and then spray down your media thoroughly. Wait several minutes, stir it up, do your planting and then water thoroughly.

OF was always the base mix of choice for me, and still is, but I haven't had to buy a bag in months. If you do organics I highly recommend recycling the mix, which is not a difficult thing to do and will benefit you and the plant.

ive ran a shit load of water all day and it still dont hold that good.Next time ima try to mix half happy frog and half ocean forest.

CR500ROOST said:

ive ran a shit load of water all day and it still dont hold that good.Next time ima try to mix half happy frog and half ocean forest.

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adding another soil to your mix will have no affect at all, its all made of the same shit. (add or subtract a couple goodies) well not all is the exact same, but your prob has nothing to do with your soil.

If you ran water through the pot all day and it still wont hold water then i dont see how anything could be growin in that?
Are we trying to recycle old soil ?

Put a bowl or somthin under the pot to catch the run off and let it sit in its own run off for an hour ..... and if it dont retain water after that , then its not soil anymore ..... its evolved to a rock.



good luck and keep um green



soil

I just watered my biggest girl, in 5 gal FFOF, and she took almost 2 gal before runoff.

wyteboi said:

adding another soil to your mix will have no affect at all, its all made of the same shit. (add or subtract a couple goodies) well not all is the exact same, but your prob has nothing to do with your soil.

If you ran water through the pot all day and it still wont hold water then i dont see how anything could be growin in that?
Are we trying to recycle old soil ?

Put a bowl or somthin under the pot to catch the run off and let it sit in its own run off for an hour ..... and if it dont retain water after that , then its not soil anymore ..... its evolved to a rock.



good luck and keep um green



soil

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^^^^^^THAT^^^^^^ +rep for the good info!

Let it sit in the runoff like said. I have to do this if a container becomes too dry.

If anything, I tend to under water. I have one of those drip pans for DIY oil changes that a 5 gal bucket fits perfectly in. Heavy duty and @~$3.00, cheaper than most pot saucers.

Wet

wyteboi said:

adding another soil to your mix will have no affect at all, its all made of the same shit. (add or subtract a couple goodies) well not all is the exact same, but your prob has nothing to do with your soil.

If you ran water through the pot all day and it still wont hold water then i dont see how anything could be growin in that?
Are we trying to recycle old soil ?

Put a bowl or somthin under the pot to catch the run off and let it sit in its own run off for an hour ..... and if it dont retain water after that , then its not soil anymore ..... its evolved to a rock.



good luck and keep um green



soil

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Its new soil and its the same story with pots and in the ground.And ow yea i still can grow dank watering that much.

I dunno wtf you guys are talking about, I have to add perlite to get FFOF to drain faster.

FFOF does get "crusty" between waterings, if you just go and pour water on the soil it will gather on the surface and fall to the sides of the pot. You gotta saturate the soil slowly, then you can water at will. I like to do 50% watering, then let it sit for 10 minutes or so and come back and do the rest...

soo, just had a talk with my plant, and she said more drain the better.....

wbd said:

I dunno wtf you guys are talking about, I have to add perlite to get FFOF to drain faster.

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this is what im sayin.....

CR500ROOST said:

Its new soil and its the same story with pots and in the ground.And ow yea i still can grow dank watering that much.

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If you ran water strait through your pots all day long and still didnt get it to retain anything then it is bone dry and needs to sit in its own run off for an hour to give your dry dead dirt some life back into it.

Unless you were just running tiny amounts of water through the pot all day ?



soil

yea lol ive been searching for different soils i got a bag of some humbolbt mix and some soil from GH gona try these two next run thru.

I use pallagron mix and some hydroton on the bottom it drains pretty fast too,but I suppose since I gro a autoflower in a 3gallon pot the root mass its not all over the pot so it holds less water