Is it OK to mix FFOF with HP Pro Mix?

Batcountry44

New Member
Hey everyone, Is it ok to mix Fox Farm Ocean Forest with HP Pro Mix? I like FFOF but it doesn't dry out fast enough for me. So I was wondering about mixing the two to get better drainage and dry out a little faster. Would it change the PH level when mixing the two of them together? I was thinking of mixing it at a 50/50 ratio. Any and all comments will be greatly appreciated thanks.:tokin:
 
may I suggest sticking with the very good and rich ocean forest, and just fix it a bit for our needs with the gardener's secret, perlite. Most of us have found that a 3:1 mix of FFOF : perlite is a wonderful mix. It doesn't compact, drainage is good and roots are able to establish easier. The perlite also provides hiding places for moisture, oxygen and microlife, keeping everything active while the container dries out. I would much rather go this route than mixing 2 completely different types of systems into a hybrid that nobody would really understand, pH and otherwise. I am sure others will disagree, but I consider FFOF to be a premium organic soil... why mess with it?
 
Hey Richard Thanks for the info. Do you have a suggestion on pH range? 6.0 to 6.5??????? Or should I go a little lower?:hmmmm:

My water is at 6.8 from the bathroom tap - I have only tested it once and have never had an issue with pH.

6.5 is probably fine, I wouldn't worry about that too much, the FFOF will have a buffering effect anyway.

Is there a certain size of perlite you would recommend to mix with the FFOF???????

There is perlite in Promix HP :thumb:
 
Nothing we do in the garden is without consequences, sometimes immediate, sometimes with a delay. Adding a peat based component to our soil is one of those things that ends up biting you later on.

Peat breaks down, and at about week 5 or 6 in the grow, it can suddenly send your soil acidic, making your pH drift downward instead of upward as FFOF is designed to do. This can be very confusing to the gardener and to her plants and can often times cause major problems until the peat debris is flushed out of there.

I do not recommend adding pro mix to FFOF. It takes a known product and fundamentally changes its characteristics. My advice is to go with one or the other, but not both. Each will be managed differently because of the nature of the mediums.

Regarding perlite... the small stuff definitely should be used. It may look small to you, but to an amoeba or a protozoa, the small chunks are veritable mansions.
 
FFOF Is also Peat based, just with extra compost and fishy bits, etc. :thumb:

Ingredients: Composted forest humus, sphagnum peat moss, Pacific Northwest sea-going fish emulsion, crab meal, shrimp meal, earthworm castings, sandy loam, perlite, bat guano, granite dust, Norwegian kelp, and oyster shell (for pH adjustment).
 
FFOF Is also Peat based, just with extra compost and fishy bits, etc. :thumb:

Yes it is, and one of the reasons a mid flower flush is so important in a FF grow. A little peat can be handled, and that is probably why they add the oyster shell, to offset the peat. I think my main objection is the mixing of products. Since each company has employed an army of scientists to develop what they feel is a perfect soil, why not go with one or the other? Mixing them gives you an unknown. It might be fun for some people to wing it like this, trying to innovate, but I feel there are enough unknowns in our gardens already... so why add to the potential problems? I'm not saying it can't be done... but why?
 
Hey Emilya how long should I wait or how many times should flush the soil of FFOF growing from seed? I will transplant from solo cup to 3 gal then to 5 and into 7 gal to flower in. Should I do like a mid-veg flush when they are in the 5 gal pots and a mid-flower flush?
 
Hey Emilya how long should I wait or how many times should flush the soil of FFOF growing from seed? I will transplant from solo cup to 3 gal then to 5 and into 7 gal to flower in. Should I do like a mid-veg flush when they are in the 5 gal pots and a mid-flower flush?

If you are transplanting as you plan, you are going to be putting them in fresh soil 4 times throughout veg. This will make it unnecessary to give the plants a lot of nutes, especially in the beginning, so there will not be as much of a need to flush while still in veg. There might be some benefit however to flushing once at the end of the stretch, to flush out any early flowering nutes and ready the system for the next round of nutes, but in 7 gallon containers I question the need to flush until the very end. In 3 gallon flowering containers I had to flush a lot, several times throughout a grow. 5 gallon containers were not as bad, but I still had a mid flower need to flush using FF nutes. I never ran a 7gal container with that system, but I suspect that the larger container would have given enough of a buffer that I would not have had to flush till the end. Its just a theory though... so definitely make up your own mind about this as you carefully monitor water usage near mid to late flower. If you see a slowdown, you probably need a flush.
 
Hey everyone, Is it ok to mix Fox Farm Ocean Forest with HP Pro Mix? I like FFOF but it doesn't dry out fast enough for me. So I was wondering about mixing the two to get better drainage and dry out a little faster. Would it change the PH level when mixing the two of them together? I was thinking of mixing it at a 50/50 ratio. Any and all comments will be greatly appreciated thanks.:tokin:

Hey Batcountry44, we all got some good insights from Richard and Emilya, but tell us what you did. Did you mix HP with FFOF and how did your grow turn out? Thanks!
 
Yes I did mix the two together and I have done so ever since. The best ratio I have found is for every 3gal of FFOF I put 1gal of HP PRO MIX. So 3 to 1 ratio. And my flower has turned out GREAT!:thumb:

Thanks. Am planning to do the same. Did you add anything else to your mix? any lime or perlite? how long did you veg before adding any nutes?
 
I did add about 2 to 3 cups of perlite for every 3 to 1 ratio of mix. As for as adding nutes it depends on how big of pot you transplant to. But on average I'd say I got 3 to 4 weeks before I had to added any nutes. And if you transplant from solo cup to 1 gal to 3 gal to 5 gal you shouldn't have to add anything until flower. But you can add some nutes towards the end before you transplant to push the plants to grow a little faster but start at a quarter of early veg nutes recommendations.
 
To be clear you can add nutes around the start of week 3 from time you transplant until its time to transplant again. Then I do not add nutes again until week 3. Pay attention to your bottom leaves when they start to lighten up in color you definitely need to add nutes or transplant again right away.
 
Thanks. Am planning to do the same. Did you add anything else to your mix? any lime or perlite? how long did you veg before adding any nutes?

I did add about 2 to 3 cups of perlite for every 3 to 1 ratio of mix. As for as adding nutes it depends on how big of pot you transplant to. But on average I'd say I got 3 to 4 weeks before I had to added any nutes. And if you transplant from solo cup to 1 gal to 3 gal to 5 gal you shouldn't have to add anything until flower. But you can add some nutes towards the end before you transplant to push the plants to grow a little faster but start at a quarter of early veg nutes recommendations.

To be clear you can add nutes around the start of week 3 from time you transplant until its time to transplant again. Then I do not add nutes again until week 3. Pay attention to your bottom leaves when they start to lighten up in color you definitely need to add nutes or transplant again right away.

Thanks Batcountry44.

You confirm that FFOF out of the bag will supply a good 4 or 6 weeks of NPK. Nutes will not be needed for a considerable time. That is what I need for my "semi-guerilla" grow.

I will leave seedlings rooting in an aerated cylinder on top of the soil in 15 gallon fabric pots in a very private backyard spot, automatic watering, sunny and hot, for most of the vegetative stage, for about two months. These will be outdoor feminized strains selected for robust growth and low maintenance, OG Kush, Blueberry Headband, Sour Diesel No. 2. If the Ph and soil content is good to begin with, it may work.

So another question I meant to ask was whether the Ph of FFOF was lowered by adding the peat? Maybe this was not an issue for you at all, but I am curious as to whether you tested the Ph of your FFOF/ProMix HP mix before using it? I read that FFOF has a Ph of about 6.3-6.5 out of the bag, which is close to ideal for cannabis. But if you add ordinary peat, it will lower your Ph and require buffering with lime. I read on the ProMix website that limestone is added to HP to buffer its Ph level to "optimal", so I guess I want to know what the Ph of the HP is out of the bale.

In another thread here on 420 fanleaf wrote that ProMix HP has a Ph of 5.8-6.2, and if that is true for my bale then I would guess that mixing FFOF and ProMix HP (both straight out of the bag/bale at your 3:1 ratio) would result in an acceptable Ph of around 6.0 or 6.1 or 6.2. Still I will test it before using, just to be sure, but did you take a Ph reading on the HP, on your final soil mix, or both?

Thanks again! :high-five:
 
I guess Promix HP has enough lime in it to raise the pH to the right level. So I guess the correct answer is no lime needs to be added. I tested the pH of straight peat and it was 4. Will also test the Promix HP, just to be sure. Have a good grow everyone! :cheer:
 
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