Hey guys. I have some questions regarding the Fox Farm feeding schedule. I have a couple seedlings in their final grow pots. Little over 2 weeks in. I heard I don’t need to do any nutrients yet but soon I will. I’m using FF Happy Frog soil. I’ll just get straight to the point here, I’m confused about the feeding schedule that was provided with the FF trio I bought. (Big Bloom, Grow Big, and Tiger Bloom). The feeding guide provided has numerous feeding schedules. But from my understanding, I’ve narrowed it down to 2 and I’m not sure which one to use. There is the “Soil feeding schedule” and then there is “Happy Frog feeding schedule” The soil schedule mentions using my preferred FF soil… well I’m using Happy Farm. But wouldn’t that mean I should use the Happy Farm schedule? It’s very confusing.
I also don’t understand the different colors used on the schedule. There’s 3 rows of green, 7 rows of orange, and 3 rows of purple. That’s just the “Soil schedule. The Happy Frog schedule is its own different rows of colors. Are these all different nutrients I need to buy? Sorry if these are dumb questions I’m just very confused at what I need to do here.
It also mentions sledgehammer flush? Do I need that as well. There are a lot of nutrients listed here, I thought I just needed the trio package from Fox Farm…
And 1 more thing. The PPM range… my water is around 30 PPM. The ranges on the schedule are waaaaay higher. Are those what my water should be after I mix the nutrients?
You should use the “soil feeding schedule“, the “happy frog” is for vegetables.
If you were to mix those in the green section with those in the purple section, your ppm should be in the range listed at top, assuming you are using the 700 scale on your meter and low ppm in your water.
Those in the purple section are powders that are mixed with those above in the green section, they tend to be stronger nutrients.
The items in the orange section are special items such as bacteria to feed the roots - Boomerang, Kangaroots, and microbe brew (which have expiration date of two years, which sucks because you use so little at a time), and bembe to feed the buds with a molasses type item. Wholly mackerel and kelp me kelp you are for organic growing and typically not used with the rest. Flower kiss is a foliage spray which will slowly coat the walls of your grow space unless you use it outside. The Sledgehammer is for flushing out buildups of nutrients.
If you buy the Fox Farms Dirty Dozen it comes with everything but the Wholly Mackerel and Kelp Me Kelp You
You do not have to buy all that stuff, seems like most do fine just using the three in the green section.
You won’t need nutes till week ~5 since you’re in hot soil.
You will need to start and stay on week 4 of that schedule, till you flip to flowering.
Start with 1/4 to 1/2 of the recommended dose, FF is aggressive and has reputation for it along with salt build up.
When you water, always water to run off. Check the runoff for your ppm #s.
Yes, your ppm will change as you add nutes, it’s very important to shake your water jug well after adding each nutrient.
I use FF soil and nutes, I use a feed water feed schedule.
Lastly, with your water ppm that low, I would recommend adding 5ml of calmag to one gallon of water on water only days, can help prevent problems down the line.
One more last, don’t always rely on the chart, give the plant a good look over, is she light green? She is hungry, dark green? Just thirsty…
Thank you both for the replies. I didn’t realize going in to this all the work required. I mean that in a good way. It’s fun to learn all of this and see what all really goes into growing these plants.
I did a quick amazon search. There seems to be a lot of brands selling anal Mag. Would this one be good? GH is generally a well known brand I’ve read.
If you’re just using the trio, your ppms will still be lower than what this chart states. That is the ppm if you were to use the entire dirty dozen.
Yes, you will need to follow the flush schedule. But only after you start adding nutes. You don’t have to have sledgehammer but using it will reduce the amount of water needed for a proper flush
@BobbyDigital I may need to read more about PPm meters. I wasn’t aware of different types. I bought mine off amazon. I think it says it has a range of 0-9990.
Just did a quick test with it. Here it is. This is from the tap. I mixed up a gallon of my first nutrients I’ll use for week 5 using Big Bloom and Grow Up. Mixed it well. And tested again and it was about 280 PPM
15% to 20% of what you put in. It’s my rule of thumb using FF trio as it gets salt build ups. You’re flushing salt build up and access when watering to run off.
Ha man, you asked every single question I had when I first got that. Just didn’t have the courage to ask all that (afraid I might look dumb lol) so thank you for asking all that. I still am not all the way acclimated to it quite yet.
I too have the trio, and the guy at the hydro store said the kelp me kelp you would help me too of that same list. If I were to add anything more to my feed, would you suggest the nutrients in the purple section best? I’m on week 2 of flower.
Also on the chart, are those ppm readings the readings you’re supposed to get before you add the water to the soil or the run off readings?
