Alternative to fox farm that's available in Australia?????

BluntMoniker

BluntMoniker

Well-Known Member
Just buy the loam with chicken Manure from your landscape guy. Dont buy mushroom compost..

Mushroom compost is left over substrate from mushroom growing and will have a lot of its N already drained away, as they dont reamend it before bagging and selling it. Whatever is leftover after mushrooms are grown is what ya get.

Chicken manure is one of the best animal manure types for a vegetative growth, as it's got one of the highest N values of all the animal manure types.

Just mix in some perlite for drainage, and get yourself a solid grow/bloom nutrient to supplement once the soil is drained of nutrients, and you'll be fine.
 
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MadFlavour

Active Member
BluntMoniker said:
Just buy the loam with chicken Manure from your landscape guy. Dont buy mushroom compost..

Mushroom compost is left over substrate from mushroom growing and will have a lot of its N already drained away, as they dont reamend it before bagging and selling it. Whatever is leftover after mushrooms are grown is what ya get.

Chicken manure is one of the best animal manure types for a vegetative growth, as it's got one of the highest N values of all the animal manure types.

Just mix in some perlite for drainage, and get yourself a solid grow/bloom nutrient to supplement once the soil is drained of nutrients, and you'll be fine.
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None of this makes sense to me being a noob. Who is my landscape guy? EDIT: I think you might be replying to the OP who mentioned a landscape guy, my bad.
If you can drop a link to a real world product it may make more sense.. but I have no idea what you mean.
 
BluntMoniker

BluntMoniker

Well-Known Member
MadFlavour said:
None of this makes sense to me being a noob. Who is my landscape guy? EDIT: I think you might be replying to the OP who mentioned a landscape guy, my bad.
If you can drop a link to a real world product it may make more sense.. but I have no idea what you mean.
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I was responding directly to the OP, who mentioned his only access to soil being his landscape guy only having loam w/ mush compost or loam w chicken manure. Was letting him know he doesnt need fox farm (or any other fancy soil mix) soil, and what he has available locally is perfectly fine.

As for you, I have no idea what your talking about? Did you ask a separate question somewhere in this thread? If it's similar to OP, then I can give you suggestions based on what's available to you locally in Australia if you tell me what's around you, otherwise, I wont be of much use as I'm not australian.
 
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MadFlavour

Active Member
BluntMoniker said:
As for you, I have no idea what your talking about? Did you ask a separate question somewhere in this thread? If it's similar to OP, then I can give you suggestions based on what's available to you locally in Australia if you tell me what's around you, otherwise, I wont be of much use as I'm not australian.
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MadFlavour said:
All I want is a step by step Australian based guide as to what soil to get for a 4x4 tent grow under LED, where to buy it, and not using strange terms
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BluntMoniker

BluntMoniker

Well-Known Member
MadFlavour said:
Another Aussie here, frustrated with either everyone just saying 'Fox Farms' or spelling out some super weird recipe that is all greek to a beginner. I've spent hours trying to research it as a noob. I just want a soil I can go buy and start with in a tent grow, some people will say just grab a bag of premium Osmocote from Bunnings. Then others will shoot that idea down as stupid, you don't want any 'NPK soils'.
Then the 'coco' suggestions come in. In threads that ask what SOIL in a indoor grow is needed.. huh that isn't soil? So now we are growing hydro yeah? Which everyone says is way harder for a beginner, just do a soil 1st grow, you don;t need to worry as much about ph of water.. so then the loop starts again.. what soil? Fox Farms!
Then others say get a 'living soil' that only need water. But then others will say no they actually add nutes to that water in living soil grows. Huh? That living soil in Australia is (a) crazy expensive (b) always stocked in some middle of nowhere location and (c) out of stock everywhere.
All I want is a step by step Australian based guide as to what soil to get for a 4x4 tent grow under LED, where to buy it, and not using strange terms like 'guano' or 'lifter' like a beginner knows what the heck they are (I know it's a lot to learn but I can't even pin down what to buy and not make a mistake that rears it's head in 4 months).
I thought the light choice was hard to pin down through a sea of opinion and sponsored posts but this basic thing - soil and where to get it in my area, super frustrating especially now I have all the other kit ready.
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Again, without being in Australia myself, I cant link you products because I dont know what is available.

Instead of asking others to give you links, maybe you give us links to products you can find or ship locally, and others can tell you if it's good or not.

Were here to help, but MFers arent gonna go out and research soil distribution of other countries to help you lol.. help us help you
 
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MadFlavour

Active Member
BluntMoniker said:
Were here to help, but MFers arent gonna go out and research soil distribution of other countries to help you lol.. help us help you
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Fair call, I just thought it would be a pretty basic thing to ask but the Fox Farms answer not working for us Aussies is where it probably gets tricky.
How about this https://accenthydroponics.com/easy-as-organics-water-only-soil-25-litre/
I figure anything else (non NPK soil or coco) is going to require a bunch of liquid nutes, and when you factor this cost in, the living soil (my link or the suggested https://www.drgreenthumbs.com.au/products/water-only-soil ) works out cheaper and easier.
Does this sound like a plan
 
Moldy

Moldy

Well-Known Member
MadFlavour said:
Fair call, I just thought it would be a pretty basic thing to ask but the Fox Farms answer not working for us Aussies is where it probably gets tricky.
How about this https://accenthydroponics.com/easy-as-organics-water-only-soil-25-litre/
I figure anything else (non NPK soil or coco) is going to require a bunch of liquid nutes, and when you factor this cost in, the living soil (my link or the suggested https://www.drgreenthumbs.com.au/products/water-only-soil ) works out cheaper and easier.
Does this sound like a plan
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That soil looks 100% better than Fox Farms. The cost is high but what do you pay for an oz of weed in Australia? Fox farm will poop out on you right after you go to flower so this soil looks a lot better. But it's all in the results so you won't know for sure until you try it. I don't think I'd use it for popping seeds though as they mentioned.
 
BluntMoniker

BluntMoniker

Well-Known Member
MadFlavour said:
Fair call, I just thought it would be a pretty basic thing to ask but the Fox Farms answer not working for us Aussies is where it probably gets tricky.
How about this https://accenthydroponics.com/easy-as-organics-water-only-soil-25-litre/
I figure anything else (non NPK soil or coco) is going to require a bunch of liquid nutes, and when you factor this cost in, the living soil (my link or the suggested https://www.drgreenthumbs.com.au/products/water-only-soil ) works out cheaper and easier.
Does this sound like a plan
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Either should be fine, although I'd be careful with seedlings in either of those mixes. Might be a bit "hot" for young plants if put directly into it.

I'd try to dilute it a bit for seedlings. Do 1/4 turbo dirt with 3/4 coco coir. Then when they go in final containers, fill the final container 75% with straight turbo dirt, and then make a 50/50 turbodirt/coir mix for the top.

This way, your seedling can thrive without burning, and then when u transplant, its not being put directly into the full strength soil from a very diluted seedling soil... but as the roots grow, they'll grow down into the nutrient dense layer and be able to feed.


ALSO, I think your a bit confused on the term "fertilizer". Fertilizers can be natural or inorganic. The turbodirt has Fertilizers in it, just like miracle grow does or any other amended dirt. The difference being the type and quality of fertilizers that are used.

The reason the Turbodirt is so much more expensive than the Bunning's, is likely because it has much more fertilizing agents in it, which is why its able to sustain a plant for up to 10 weeks, where bunnings or other soil mixes dont.
 
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MadFlavour

Active Member
Moldy said:
The cost is high but what do you pay for an oz of weed in Australia? Fox farm will poop out on you right after you go to flower so this soil looks a lot better. But it's all in the results so you won't know for sure until you try it. I don't think I'd use it for popping seeds though as they mentioned.
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Great point - well if you just buy one oscar anywhere between $280 to $400. And we just don't get anything decent, it is a real problem the amount of PGR here. It's the catalyst for this lifelong smoker to learn to grow the best I've smoked.

So in this spirit, so far I have not scrimped on anything in my setup - bigger, brand name tent than I needed, the latest quantum board LEDs and the highest watt count I could afford. So getting a premium soil will happen if it needs to but I also don't want to be a sucker.. so thanks for checking my link out and giving an opinion that it looks like the goods. It's the front runner on my uneducated list
 
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MadFlavour

Active Member
BluntMoniker said:
Either should be fine, although I'd be careful with seedlings in either of those mixes. Might be a bit "hot" for young plants if put directly into it.

I'd try to dilute it a bit for seedlings. Do 1/4 turbo dirt with 3/4 coco coir. Then when they go in final containers, fill the final container 75% with straight turbo dirt, and then make a 50/50 turbodirt/coir mix for the top.

This way, your seedling can thrive without burning, and then when u transplant, its not being put directly into the full strength soil from a very diluted seedling soil... but as the roots grow, they'll grow down into the nutrient dense layer and be able to feed.


ALSO, I think your a bit confused on the term "fertilizer". Fertilizers can be natural or inorganic. The turbodirt has Fertilizers in it, just like miracle grow does or any other amended dirt. The difference being the type and quality of fertilizers that are used.

The reason the Turbodirt is so much more expensive than the Bunning's, is likely because it has much more fertilizing agents in it, which is why its able to sustain a plant for up to 10 weeks, where bunnings or other soil mixes dont.
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Thanks for the detailed reply.
When you say dilute it for seedlings with coco, is it just water that gets fed during this stage? What kind of containers you use? I was advised to just put seeds in the big pots they will live in for their whole grow, transplanting can be a fail point for beginners.

Is Turbodirt and the 'Easy As' stuff the same thing? https://accenthydroponics.com/easy-as-organics-water-only-soil-25-litre/

You say Turbodirt feeds up to 10 weeks - a grow is 4 months? - do I need to switch to liquid nutes added to my water at the 10 week point?
 
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Ryante55

Well-Known Member
MadFlavour said:
Thanks for the replies but they both leave me confused
'but the loam with mushroom compost from ur local should be just fine ' Is this even english words? I have no idea what you are saying.
'any peat based soil would be fine' - so many people on forums would say no. Brand? I dont know ANY 'peat based soil' and seems like you assume a beginner does
'nothing wrong with slow release dry amendments' - dude I get slammed for suggesting it is in my shopping list on this and a whole bunch of other forums hence my frustrations!
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Just grow stop asking questions go buy some soil try it out....your going to keep running in circles there's not 1 perfect answer. You are frustrating yourself
 
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MadFlavour

Active Member
Ryante55 said:
Just grow stop asking questions go buy some soil try it out....your going to keep running in circles there's not 1 perfect answer. You are frustrating yourself
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No doubt, but just trying it out and failing because of wrong soil is a genuine concern. I'm just going to get either the Easy As or the TurboDirt, whoever picks up the phone tomorrow and has some!
Thanks man I need a slap to just move forward ;)
 
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Ryante55

Well-Known Member
MadFlavour said:
No doubt, but just trying it out and failing because of wrong soil is a genuine concern. I'm just going to get either the Easy As or the TurboDirt, whoever picks up the phone tomorrow and has some!
Thanks man I need a slap to just move forward ;)
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Hahaha yeah dude get ready to fail a few times this is growing most people quit doing it after spending thousands of dollars. You should see the massive warehouse of used grow stuff near me new stuff comes in every single day. For me I spent $2k to start out it took me at least 2 years to break even for a little closet grow....I can do much better than that now haha but it takes time to learn then just when you figure something out you will try something new
 
TreeFarmerCharlie

TreeFarmerCharlie

Well-Known Member
MadFlavour said:
No doubt, but just trying it out and failing because of wrong soil is a genuine concern. I'm just going to get either the Easy As or the TurboDirt, whoever picks up the phone tomorrow and has some!
Thanks man I need a slap to just move forward ;)
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Learning from failures is a part of the process. If you never make any mistakes then you aren’t really learning, you are just copying why others are doing without gaining any actual learning experience.
 
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MadFlavour

Active Member
Ryante55 said:
For me I spent $2k to start out it took me at least 2 years to break even for a little closet grow....I can do much better than that now haha but it takes time to learn then just when you figure something out you will try something new
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Wow real talk! I'm kidding myself if I think my 1st grow will be 100% what I expect. But 2 years.. ouch I hope I can stand on the shoulders of people like you and scoop the hot tips. The dream is 1 pound per grow in a 4 x 4.
 
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