I'm an experienced hydro/soil/soiless mix grower. I've been growing since I was a kid and started studying horticulture about 10 years ago. I can tell you in all my humble experience, I have yet to see a noticeable difference in anything I've ever grown based on mineral/chem ferts over "organic" labeled store bought ferts in a bottle. There is a huge inconsistency on the labeling of organic ferts in the world of so-called "organic" ferts, the same as there is in the food end labeling of the world of "organic" foods. Just because the label says it's organic, doesn't mean it is. In fertilizers there is a pretty good way of identifying good organic ferts and that's by looking for the OMRI logo.
https://www.omri.org/ I am pretty sure fox farm nutes are mostly non-OMRI recognized, which doesn't necessarily mean it's non-organic, it means it's what FF calls organic, which can be vastly different from another manufacture's definition. Ya see, there is no universal standard in organic labeling.
Not to mention, there are so many things that can negate being certified organically grown once you have grown your harvest. Just because you feed it organic nutes doesn't mean it can be labeled or refereed to as "organic" food. Any number of things can disqualify a true organic grow. You'd have to do soil testing, all your pesticides would have to check out and even a little thing like pressure treated lumber in your grow area can cancel you out, if...that is, if you really are concerned with all the technicalities.
Not me, I grow using a balance of nature and technology. I try to keep it organic and natural as much as possible but I don't split hairs over just how organic I am growing. I've used every store bought liquid fert from fox farms to advanced nutrients to botanicare, general hydro yada yada yada...they're pretty much all the same when you compare each company's apple to apples. No matter what you grow and no matter what you feed it, the MOST IMPORTANT THING is a healthy rhizosphere, the word literally means root-ball. Because, no matter what you feed your plants (chem/mineral or organic) the plant doesn't really know the difference because roots don't "eat" the organic matter, they absorb liberated
molecules from decayed organic matter or derived from minerals, the absorbed molecule is still the same. Things like Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P) and Potassium (K) and a host of other elements are all found on the periodic table. Plants don't eat the coffee grounds or the banana peel you throw at them, the absorb the nitrogen and the potassium molecules that are released once it's decomposed by millions of hard working living organisms. Those organisms, like their cousins we love so much called yeast, are our friends. In fact we owe everything to them.
Which brings me to the best advice I can give you. If you've ever made a yeast starer you know how to make a compost tea. You may have already heard about compost tea but just in case you didn't or for those who don't know, it's easy to do. All you need is a 5 gallon bucket, a $10 air pump from a pet store and a $2 air stone and some earthworm castings in a silk screen sock or women's nylon. No need for me to write the entire directions for how to make compost tea since youtube can tell you more than I care to type and it's pretty basic and fool proof anyway. Just do it! Make some compost tea!
I will will say this: Be sure to off-gas the chlorine by waiting 10 or more hours before you add anything to the water and add a carbohydrate! I use molasses or if you can get it, jagery sugar is best actually because it has more useful minerals in it. I use a cup or more in a 5 gallon brew. I also use a cup of earthworm castings and several readily available beneficial bacteria, fungi and trichoderma. Look for products with the following and/or other cultures of microbes such as Bacillus Subtilis, Bacillus Licheniformus, Bacillus Azotoformans, Bacillus Megaterium (bacteria), Glomus Intraradices, Glomus Aggregatum, Trichoderma Koningii (fungi). I use a product called Roots Oregonism Xl because it's got all those and more and also has Yucca extract in it which is great for plants as well. Add that to your tea brewer along with the carbohydrates and sugars and throw a bubble stone in the bucket at about 75-78 degrees for a day or two and guess what happens? LoL! Yep, microbe propagation just like a yeast starter. Once your tea has "krausened" well (18-24 hours @ 75F-78F is usually about right), you are good to go. Dilute the tea 50/50 with declorinated, tepid water and root drench.
Once you start brewing teas you'll never need or want to do anything else. You can even make your own base fertilizers with various types guano and compost. Remember, it's the microbes that do all the work especially if you are growing organic. A good healthy beneficial microbial culture in the rhizosphere means a healthy, more disease resistant plant with larger yield!
