Fox Farms

[Trueshoe]

I have seen a lot of people recommend Fox Farms, I've never really actually had the money to afford it. I was considering it this year.

But when I went in to buy some my local gardening supply store told me that fox farms was not the best nuet especially for it's money. I talked to 3 different people there and they all recommended something different. But they all said that they carry about 5 nuets that were better. The manager even told me he makes more money off of Fox Farms but he's done many tests that all proved Fox Farms to be not as good. Granted these tests were all done on Peppers/Tomatoes.

He explained to me how Fox Farms is over hyped with the whole west coast hype being from cali. As well there claim to be organic but they are not officially registered (with I believe it is the OMDI?) as an organic (because they only use an organic base) as well as there lable being so specific because they didn't pay to get any registered lables. I guess it costs 50K to get research done on your product to actually be able to have an official lable.

He urged me to test it up against another product. He said he would even refund my money (for the other fertilizer) if I still wanted to go with Fox Farms after my testing.

So I am currently testing Fox Farms against David's. I'll get some feedback on here for you guys in a few weeks. I have 44 plants so 22 get FF and 22 get David's. I've only feed (nuets) them once so far they are all about 2 weeks old.

 

[timotay]

looking forward to find out what your results are since i just spent a good chunk of change on some foxfarm. what i tell myself is good results from just one plant more than makes up for the extra change you spend on foxfarm in comparison to the others. pure blend is one i have heard good things about.

 

[Trueshoe]

I totally agree with your rationale.

 

[benamucc]

i'm looking forward to this as i'm a FF user. I've heard that without the dilutable supplements (ChaChing, OpenSeasame, BeastieBloomz) that the 3 part is nothing to write home about.

And you're right, it's organic based, but is NOT organic nutes...

 

[Alistair]

I use the three liquid fertilizers as well as the Open Sesame, Beastie Bloomz, and Cha Ching. They work well for me. Keep us posted on how this experiment works out.

 

[SherwoodForest]

Why do you guys spend a grip of money on dirt? I buy mine by the tractor scoop and add perelite then water with mirical grow every once in a while. I get huge plants with seriouse fat buds this way. I add bat guano and nitrogen rich fish parts sometimes but never needed anything else in over 20 years. Are you guys getting more potent weed with that pricy dirt?

 

[umbra]

not every one has access to good dirt, so they buy it. as far as fox farm, for me the price of their stuff is fraction of Advanced Nutrients. You want to talk about over priced nutes, their mycorr (piranha) is like $30 for 6 oz. I buy another brand for $10/ lb. I do use their sensizym, and it is pricey. Then there's their tarantula, humic acid and fulvic acid. I buy all of these products for a fraction of what advanced nutrients is asking. Talk about hype. The more you know about what you are doing, the less sales ** you will encounter. Oh and the big ripoff is buying products that are nothing more than molasses for $35 for a little bottle.

 

[winstonwolf]

I've been using Fox Farm stuff and have been quite pleased. (It was an improvement over the Botanicare line I was using previously.) I'm eager to hear your results.

 

[Trueshoe]

Why do you guys spend a grip of money on dirt? I buy mine by the tractor scoop and add perelite then water with mirical grow every once in a while. I get huge plants with seriouse fat buds this way. I add bat guano and nitrogen rich fish parts sometimes but never needed anything else in over 20 years. Are you guys getting more potent weed with that pricy dirt?

I mix my own dirt... The guys at the gardening supply shop did say Fox Farms pre mixed planting soil was the best pre mixed they carried (even after ragging on the nuets).

But they advised to make your own (which is what I always do) as there is no supplement for getting exactly what you want and it's cheaper.

Anyway I'm 2 days in to the testing and no noticeable results, as I assumed lol

 

[Alistair]

Concerning soil, if you can mix your own soil that is just as good as some of the best pre-mixed soil on the market, then do it. However, I like FFOF soil, because it's plug and play. Besides, why reinvent the wheel? It might cost more than mixing your own soil, though.

 

[SherwoodForest]

That's cool, I made the mistake of thinking the FF stuff was dirt but I see it was a post about their nutes. I buy a yard of planting mix for 40 bucks, that's two scoops from a Bobcat dumped into my truck bed. Then I buy the huge bag of perilite and sometimes Vermiculite and hand mix the ingrediants before planting. I used to be all about buying name brand stuff and swore by a brand called Bumper Crop, but I've since discovered I can make my own for less money. I still love using Miricle Grow too because it's so cheap and easy to get. I only use it for the vegitative cycle but it works great and fricken Wallmart has it all day for little dough. Now for indoors I fully understand the importance of high quality ingredients, just seems that for me anyways, outdoor plants only need good soil, lots of sunlight, and plenty of fresh water to grow giant plants.

 

[Alistair]

SherwoodForest, what you say makes a lot of sense to me. It seems as though you believe in keeping the grow simple. I agree, it should be kept simple. In fact, as a result of advice given here on this site, I've stopped buying additives, supplements, sugar water, etc. It seems as though good soil, fertilizer, light, water, etc., are all that's needed for good, healthy plant growth.

 

[timotay]

foxfarm makes dirt and ferts

 

[winstonwolf]

So I am currently testing Fox Farms against David's. I'll get some feedback on here for you guys in a few weeks. I have 44 plants so 22 get FF and 22 get David's. I've only feed (nuets) them once so far they are all about 2 weeks old.

What is this "David's" you mentioned? I'm not familiar.

 

[Trueshoe]

Still no noticeable difference. Today was my third feeding since I started testing. Plants are getting decently sized probably around 9 inches tall on average. I am expecting to see a difference the next time I check on them in the middle of the week.

What is this "David's" you mentioned? I'm not familiar.

David's is a mid-western based fert. 3 of the 4 guys I talked to at my gardening supply all said it was going to give you the best bang for your buck. They said they carried better nuets but they were far more expensive for only a slight (if any) increase in yield/quality. All 4 of the guys said David's would give better results than FF. The 4th guy recomended an all organic nuet Biogrow I believe it was called. They all seemed very knoweledgeable and honest.

They said they test all the nuets they carry every year off of clones from a tomatoe and pepper plants. They had just started the tests the day before I went there and told me to come back and check on there plants if I was still unsure. They also urged me to test it myself. So I figured why not test it myself.

 

[erikjay]

You're hot on the trail of something quite important to me and, I wager, a lot of other folks. It's a valuable community service you are performing, no question about it.

So ... anything new and exciting?

 

[Trueshoe]

Okay due to complications only 37 plants end up making it. Some animal dug a few of them out (5 were David's tested and 2 were FF tested).

I have been pushing my plants a bit as of late. I use the weekly feeding recommended (have been using a bit more than that even as of late) mix but I feed 2 sometimes 3 times a week. The plants have responded beautifully for the most part, I slightly burned about 4 of the smaller ones (they were in shock early in the grow and there growth was stunt) at first but I layed off them a bit and they are coming back strong. The other plants though have flourished greatly.


I have been testing this for over a month now. I can tell that the David's plants are actually slightly better....

The plants all still vary in height (On average most are over 16" tall though a few are already well over 2 feet) The David's plants have Wider, Wider, Thicker, Greener leaves than the Fox Farms ones (comparing the best David's plants to the best FF plants). Again it is only a month into testing and the results are still close. Also a few of the plants on for both David's and FF were in shock for the first 1 - 2 weeks due to a drop off in low temps.


My logic here is since Fox Farms is not blowing David's away (it is actually losing a bit) I will continue to go with David's from here on out. Unless the Fox Farms has a big come back. I should really continue to test this throughout the bloom process but money is getting super tight and FF is more than 2x the price of David's.

I will continue however to test FF throughout the vet state, as I still have about a half a bottle left. But I won't be buying there bloom products when the time comes. So I'll let you know if anything changes. I should get a tape measure back there and actually bring back some real dimensions. I am good at estimating though since I am a Carpenter by trade.

Again not a 100% perfect scientific test (I've had a few complications and uncontrolled variables) but I am surprised that the David's is actually doing better after all the good things I've heard about Fox Farms.

 

[killerm8r]

You want to talk about over priced nutes, their mycorr (piranha) is like $30 for 6 oz. I buy another brand for $10/ lb.

You have to keep in mind that not all those microbial products sold are still in good condition when you get them. There's a lot that can be done (or not done) to make sure they're viable in the bottle for a reasonable length of time.

I'm betting that's probably what causes the price difference between things, more than anything else. It's living material - producing and storing that stuff alive isn't cheap.

Oh and the big ripoff is buying products that are nothing more than molasses for $35 for a little bottle.

Yeah, that rumor is a popular one but it's easy to test. Just try whatever you're suspicious of in hydroponics. Molasses invariably winds up disastrous in hydroponics - slime city.

Honestly though, it's all just **. I don't think anyone actually bottles molasses like they say.

 

[frankcos]

what ever happened to your test?the last post was in june.

 

[Stonercool]

I thought Miracle Grow was a really bad idea for grow that you want to smoke. I mean, I’m not all organic, but that **** is nasty.

Keeping it cool…