Fox Farms soil pH?

[Virgin Ground]

I was wondering if there are a few members using Fox farms soil that could do a quick slurry test on NEW soil and report back here? We are looking for pH variances in ocean forest, happy frog etc. This will allow us to better serve members having problems in the future. I would appreciate it. Happy gardening.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

I was wondering if there are a few members using Fox farms soil that could do a quick slurry test on NEW soil and report back here? We are looking for pH variances in ocean forest, happy frog etc. This will allow us to better serve members having problems in the future. I would appreciate it. Happy gardening.

I would but non of mine is fresh, sorry Charlie

 

[Virgin Ground]

Thanks for looking though, Chris.


My Fox farms ocean forest was sitting at 6.4 for a new bag.
I bought this in the last 8 months.

 

[Emilya Green]

I will also be very interested in any results we can gather.... Thanks for starting this VG.

 

[TheFertilizer]

Always been at 7 for me but I can't recall how many bags I've tested. I only use Happy Frog from FF.

 

[Virgin Ground]

Always been at 7 for me but I can't recall how many bags I've tested. I only use Happy Frog from FF.

Thanks for reporting back.....I fell asleep reading your comment last night. Lol. I couldn't get a full sentence out evidently.

 

[Cannalove420]

I was wondering if there are a few members using Fox farms soil that could do a quick slurry test on NEW soil and report back here? We are looking for pH variances in ocean forest, happy frog etc. This will allow us to better serve members having problems in the future. I would appreciate it. Happy gardening.

I did a slure test with water in at 7.0 and it came out at 6.8

 

[Edna]

I’m late to the party, but I also have tried this on a fresh bag (ocean forest) two months ago. My h20 at 7.0 came to 6.7 using a blue lab ph pen.

 

[Cannalove420]

Just tested the soil out the bag with a rapitest again with a soil ph meter I just purchased and I got a different reading than the slurry test, another change with this test is I got a new ph pen since that last one broke and have reason to believe it was not calibrated correctly by I used hard water for the buffer solution when it’s suppose to be distilled. This new test was done correctly. And these are the results. Water in is 6.8 with ppm around 295-300 and water out is 6.5. The fertility of this soil is 5 witch is in the ideal range for the chart that came with the device.

 

[Cannalove420]

Edit- Now I’m sceptical of this device, not sure if I was supposed to let the water sit in the soil a few minutes before testing but the first test was done right after applying water and it read 6.5 with fertility at 5. The second reading about 10 mins later with the same sample And it’s 7.0ph and fertility still at 5.

 

[Cannalove420]

Update. I’m going to let the soil sit for awhile and I’ll report back with the results. Sorry for the confusion. All and all we know that ffof is right around the range for cannabis and over time I’m sure the ph will drop? Am I right or wrong?

 

[Emilya Green]

Update. I’m going to let the soil sit for awhile and I’ll report back with the results. Sorry for the confusion. All and all we know that ffof is right around the range for cannabis and over time I’m sure the ph will drop? Am I right or wrong?

You are right... FFOF holds up well for about 2 grows and then the breakdown of peat and sphagnum will cause a dramatic drop in pH.

 

[Cannalove420]

Emilya I have a question to ask and sorry for posting it on a irrelevant post but I had no where else to post it...is hard well water (250-300ppm) ok for camnabis grows or would it be best to use my 5 stage water filter witch brings the ppm to 0ppm but raises my ph to 8.0. I have pure citric acid the same they use in earth juice, would I be able to use the citric acid to adjust the water ph to 7.0 or should I just role with the hard well water? Not sure if the minerals in it are healthy or not, there are a lot of buried garbage like batteries and what not close by the well. So far the plants seem ok! Thanks in advance and appreciate your opinion

 

[Cannalove420]

Update: it’s now 7:30pm, last ph test in ffof with a soil probe meter was at 10am. The probe meter is still reading at 7.0. I also tested the runoff with a digital meter that read 7.0 also, let me mind you this was the very first time I watered the 1 gallon air pot enough to get run-off. Also tested the runoff ppm with 2 different meters and it’s reading 250-300x10 witch equals out to 3000ppm! Note: this soil has nature’s living soil at the bottom 1/3 of the pot so my readings may be different than someone using all fox farm.

 

[Emilya Green]

Emilya I have a question to ask and sorry for posting it on a irrelevant post but I had no where else to post it...is hard well water (250-300ppm) ok for camnabis grows or would it be best to use my 5 stage water filter witch brings the ppm to 0ppm but raises my ph to 8.0. I have pure citric acid the same they use in earth juice, would I be able to use the citric acid to adjust the water ph to 7.0 or should I just role with the hard well water? Not sure if the minerals in it are healthy or not, there are a lot of buried garbage like batteries and what not close by the well. So far the plants seem ok! Thanks in advance and appreciate your opinion

I would tend to not want to use the hard well water in a container grow. It may be ok for outside plants in the ground, but I would be afraid that in the confined space of the container that it would allow lots of added buildup in the soil that could actually drive the buffered pH up way out of the designed range. Like you said, you don't know what is in that water either, but since it has been sitting in that aquifer picking up stuff for a while, I would not trust it. I like the idea of filtering it and then using citrus to bring it down into the range. There is a good thread on here talking about the effects of a very alkaline water to a soil over time, and I would not risk it affecting a grow.

 

[Cannalove420]

I would tend to not want to use the hard well water in a container grow. It may be ok for outside plants in the ground, but I would be afraid that in the confined space of the container that it would allow lots of added buildup in the soil that could actually drive the buffered pH up way out of the designed range. Like you said, you don't know what is in that water either, but since it has been sitting in that aquifer picking up stuff for a while, I would not trust it. I like the idea of filtering it and then using citrus to bring it down into the range. There is a good thread on here talking about the effects of a very alkaline water to a soil over time, and I would not risk it affecting a grow.

What would you ph the water to?

 

[Emilya Green]

What would you ph the water to?

The answer is somewhere in the range that your nutrient line requires to break apart the chelation and allow the raw nutrients to become mobile. For most soil based nutrients, the optimum point of mobility is 6.3 pH, the range is 6.2-6.8 and the most common advice given today is to adjust to the middle of that range at 6.5 pH although years ago when I think we were a little smarter, that advice would have been 6.3. As long as you are somewhere in the range you should be ok, and toward mid to late flower, concentrate on the lower portion of the range so you can better pick up the heavy metals that are needed in trace amounts.

 

[Imananji]

Hello I'm a new grower and I'm using FFOF recommended by a buddy which also recommended flushing the soil first. So on my first flush with distilled water at pH 5.5 and EC at 0.0 I measured pH 7.0 and EC 4.0 from runoff . I proceeded to keep flushing it until my EC was 0.1 ish and got my pH down to 6.5 ish. After my first watering of my seedlings with distilled water I again measured runoff and found pH 6.7 and EC at 0.6 . Im new to this but from what I've learned seedlings don't need EC so high

 

[Cannalove420]

Update. Green crack is on day 27 and the soil is mixed with about 30% royal gold 60%ffof 10% natures living soil, which contain bat shit and other goodies pretty much the same as ffof. The run-off is 7.0 after watering with 6.8-7.0 water. Gorilla glues soil contains 80% ffof 10%royal gold 10%natures super soil. Run-off came out at 6.8 when watered with ph water to 6.0. Hope this helps. Anyone growing with different mixes. As long as you have more ocean forest than the other combined soil I’m sure the ocean forest buffers will take hold but will most likely not hold up as long as it would with straight ffof.

 

[Cannalove420]

The answer is somewhere in the range that your nutrient line requires to break apart the chelation and allow the raw nutrients to become mobile. For most soil based nutrients, the optimum point of mobility is 6.3 pH, the range is 6.2-6.8 and the most common advice given today is to adjust to the middle of that range at 6.5 pH although years ago when I think we were a little smarter, that advice would have been 6.3. As long as you are somewhere in the range you should be ok, and toward mid to late flower, concentrate on the lower portion of the range so you can better pick up the heavy metals that are needed in trace amounts.

If my runoff is reading 3000ppm should I flush soft ph water until the readings are lower to get some of that salt build up out from the hard water or should I water as normal with a tad bit of runoff? Soil is fox farm with a little royal gold and natures living soil mixed in the bottom layer. Thank you! You been a big help and I appreciate it