Hi Christopher and Welcome. The consensus is the cheap ones don't work. I've never used that soil before. If you can't use your tap water then I'd use the bottled first. Second I'd go with the distilled. If you use distilled you'll need more cal mag as there's no minerals in it they need.
Thank you for your response that's kind of what I was thinking.. on my first attempt at growing I use distilled water and pH it I used the cheap prong meter to test it and it was fine but the next day I would test the soil and it was almost in the eights
Thank you very much for the awesome information! I just recently got my pens and that's how I realized that distilled water is way lower than 7 .0 which may have been my problem I think I'm on the right track nowHey @Christopher Bennett , welcome to this awesome community!
We can definitely help you out with your all your questions.
Fox Farms Happy Frog (FF HF) is an excellent choice in soil. Its pH starts around 6.8 and has dolomite lime added to help with the pH soil drift.
Using the cheap prong meters are not very accurate at testing the pH of the soil. If we ever want to know the pH of the soil, we will do a proper "soil slurry pH test".
We typically do not track the pH of the soil, because it has the innate ability to buffer the pH naturally.
We typically do track the pH and TDS of of our water/feed going into the soil and like to keep our water/feed in the 6.5 to 6.7 range.
Do you have a pH pen and a TDS pen yet?
Its a good idea to track the EC of your feeds as well.
Depending on the quality of your water (pH & TDS), you can just use tap water or well water.
Please let us know more about your grow so we can help you to be successful!
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I will look into it thank you ! Don't want to break the bank but don't want to buy junk either !!!
thank you I will definitely check you guys out I live in Michigan and I'm also a veteran
I'm 2 months in with northern lights in Fox Farm soil. Dont check soil, but check water and notes with a 10 buck electronic ph tester. I'm new too. First crop. Using Fox Farm three bottle notes. Every third watering. Everything is going very well. Good luck and stay frosty.
Happy Growing!
