Need recomendation for soil mix indoors.

darkmatter313

darkmatter313

Member
So it looks like I'm making the switch from Hydroponics to soil. I started some plants and have some in veg now and they are doing amazing! I used Fox Farms ocean Forest, and nothing else. Now I'm looking at filling up about 30 5 gallon pots. With Happy Frog or ocean Forest this is going to cost me around 300 to $400. I am also looking at using the fox farm line of fertilizer. It worked very well for me back when I was a closet grower. Anything I could cut for mix with that soil to lower the price? I'm trying to get it down to 200 if I can. I just had a somewhat failed deep water culture grow and cannot afford the dump even more money
 
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Sparky413

Sparky413

Well-Known Member
The cheaper thing for you would be to just use straight ffof and mix in perlite. Worm castings and good compost will be more expensive than FFOF. It's only like 20 bucks for 1.5 cf at my local garden stores. Using a better microbial living ogranic soil like Coast of Maine stonington blend might be cheaper, it's much more dense than FFOF and you could cut it with much more perlite and could cut out bottled nutrients entirely and get away with only top feeding once or twice with cheap organic dry nutrients. I'm currently cooking soil for the 1st time, it's a 1/3 coco, 1/3 pumice, rice hulls, 1/3 compoast/worm castings blend, ammended with buildasoil nutrient and mineral pack, basalt dust, kelp meal, and dr earth flower girl. I found mixing it myself to be much more expensive than FFOF or COM, but I don't compost.
 
Sparky413

Sparky413

Well-Known Member
Sparky413 said:
The cheaper thing for you would be to just use straight ffof and mix in perlite. Worm castings and good compost will be more expensive than FFOF. It's only like 20 bucks for 1.5 cf at my local garden stores. Using a better microbial living ogranic soil like Coast of Maine stonington blend might be cheaper, it's much more dense than FFOF and you could cut it with much more perlite and could cut out bottled nutrients entirely and get away with only top feeding once or twice with cheap organic dry nutrients. I'm currently cooking soil for the 1st time, it's a 1/3 coco, 1/3 pumice, rice hulls, 1/3 compoast/worm castings blend, ammended with buildasoil nutrient and mineral pack, basalt dust, kelp meal, and dr earth flower girl. I found mixing it myself to be much more expensive than FFOF or COM, but I don't compost.
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After posting that I realized I never answered the question. If you're using a bottled nutrient line, you could cut that with as much buffered coco/perlite as you wanted to bring the cost down to 200 and would likely get similar results.
 
darkmatter313

darkmatter313

Member
Sparky413 said:
After posting that I realized I never answered the question. If you're using a bottled nutrient line, you could cut that with as much buffered coco/perlite as you wanted to bring the cost down to 200 and would likely get similar results.
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by buffered Coco do you mean like buying some hydrated lime to mix in with it or something? Or do they have Coco that is already buffered for soil bringing the ph up to around six or seven?
 
Sparky413

Sparky413

Well-Known Member
By buffered coco I mean, you have to soak the coco in a double dose of cal mag for 8 hours before using. Has something to do with the cat ion exchange which I know nothing about. It will take the calcium from your bottled nutrients instead of the plant getting it.
 
Sparky413

Sparky413

Well-Known Member
dubanpoisoner said:
I'm starting my first grow and got ffof and perlite. I have the ff nute trio as well, not sure if I'm even going to need it. 3 gal pots.
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You will probably need a little something in a pot that small. If you go organic and don't use the bottled nutes, you can reuse the soil. You could possibly get away with just top feeding addition FFOF. I really like Dr. Earth Flower girl and worm castings as a top dress, and that could be used to re-amend the soil for a 2nd grow.
 
D

dubanpoisoner

Active Member
Ever use Nature's Living Soil super soil concentrate?

Had considered using that with FFOF and perlite instead of the bottled nutes
 
Sparky413

Sparky413

Well-Known Member
dubanpoisoner said:
Ever use Nature's Living Soil super soil concentrate?

Had considered using that with FFOF and perlite instead of the bottled nutes
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No I haven't, but I've heard of people having a lot of success with that. I'm new to growing organically, I recently switched from coco. But you can inoculate your soil in many ways and that seems like a really good way.
 
euphoria526

euphoria526

Well-Known Member
I really liked happy frog. Went in the the knowledge it’s way lighter than ffof and fed heavy with roots organics and they loved it. 3 gal cloth pots
 
darkmatter313

darkmatter313

Member
This is all very good information. Thanks everyone

Edit: I like to get input from actual people as opposed to websites or hydro stores. It's also how I shop for genetics
 
Corso312

Corso312

Well-Known Member
darkmatter313 said:
So it looks like I'm making the switch from Hydroponics to soil. I started some plants and have some in veg now and they are doing amazing! I used Fox Farms ocean Forest, and nothing else. Now I'm looking at filling up about 30 5 gallon pots. With Happy Frog or ocean Forest this is going to cost me around 300 to $400. I am also looking at using the fox farm line of fertilizer. It worked very well for me back when I was a closet grower. Anything I could cut for mix with that soil to lower the price? I'm trying to get it down to 200 if I can. I just had a somewhat failed deep water culture grow and cannot afford the dump even more money
Click to expand...

Go to a local nursery or flower shop, they usually sell their own house mix for a fair price.
 
Billytheluther

Billytheluther

Well-Known Member
darkmatter313 said:
Tired of dealing with root rot issues. Lost half of my crop the last run
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You already have knowledge in hydro... why go back to a medium in which you dont know whats in it???
Give hempy buckets a shot dude you wont regret it and youll never come across toot rott.. 1 bag of perlite cost under 45 buck and thats good to fill a couple of 2 gallon pots close to 20 maybe more..
A 2 gallon hempy creates a monster sized indoor plant 1/4 elbow plus depending on veg time and it will never become root bound or have root rot..
plus you have bottled nutes i suppose...
so with pots and perlite your looking at 100 or less..
You do need seed plugs though but they cheap
 
Billytheluther

Billytheluther

Well-Known Member
Billytheluther said:
You already have knowledge in hydro... why go back to a medium in which you dont know whats in it???
Give hempy buckets a shot dude you wont regret it and youll never come across toot rott.. 1 bag of perlite cost under 45 buck and thats good to fill a couple of 2 gallon pots close to 20 maybe more..
A 2 gallon hempy creates a monster sized indoor plant 1/4 elbow plus depending on veg time and it will never become root bound or have root rot..
plus you have bottled nutes i suppose...
so with pots and perlite your looking at 100 or less..
You do need seed plugs though but they cheap
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its the cheaper rout.. if you’re set on soil go for it.. i was just saying that so you cost could be lower...
 
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