Best soil and nutrient/fertilizer combination to keep things simple?

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giannid

Active Member
So I'm going to be attempting my first indoor grow. I'll be using a 4 by 4 tent with a Sunsystems lec 315 cmh bulb. Have a few different strains and I'm going to try for 4 or 5 plants.

So today I was at two local indoor grow stores to get some ideas and recommendations. Most importantly I looking at my options for soil and nutrients. Man this nutrients thing looks complicated. The one guy was telling me my best bet was to use Coco to plant in and use 4 different fertilizers/nutrients by Spartan/Nectar brand. Seems like a lot of stuff to use. He said I will have to monitor PH and make some adjustments with my nutrients based on PH.

Another place recommended Roots Organic soil and just one fertilizer to simplify things, Advance Nutrients PH perfect bloom. He said I wouldn't have to test the PH with this fertilizer.

What do you guys recommend? This is my first indoor grow and I want as simple as possible with good results. Seems like if things are very complicated there's more to go wrong.
 
What is your definition of simple?

I do the simplest method possible which takes some effort...sounds crazy right?

I use in soil either a pure organic combo that needs only water or a super soil that is weak and I make my own nutrients in a bucket. I modify the recipe a smidge for different parts of the growth cycle and give my plants exactly what I want them to have made by me fresh. I think that is easier than using a bottle and trying to follow their guidelines.

Sounds crazy I know. Lots of people do it.

Coco growing is possibly the most difficult to do right. I would not recommend it for beginners.

I usually do some sort of mix that has enough for veg and then add bloom nutes in bloom. It is very simple to make a soil with enough in it for veg that it needs no fertilizers. In fact not having done so means you have a garbage mix to begin with. Specifically if you have any sort of decent soil mix and reasonable pot size you wont need veg nutes.

I never do. But I make good soil not just stuff from a bag.

The most basic is 1/3 each perlite, composted steer manure, good soil bag like fox farm.

The manure has enough nitrogen for all of veg and the microbes get you going. It is mostly organic material like coco and works just like coco as a fertilizer trap in bloom.

Use steer manure instead of coco, thin it with perlite and good soil and you are golden Charlie brown.

Then in bloom you can choose whatever brand you want to use.

pH your water propper and add some cal mag if you clean your water.

3 part soil and water in veg, bloom nutes in bloom. That is rather simple I think.
 
I would recommend large pots (7 gallons if your back can take it) of just regular Fox Farms Happy Frog, and use General Hydroponic's Flora Nova Bloom through the entire life-cycle--it has enough nitrogen in it for the growth period, so no sense buying the "Grow" formula.

Beyond that, just get a cheap pH test kit. The ones with the liquid drops and color indicators work well and are pretty cheap.

Personally I think that's the simplest, cheapest and easiest way to go about it.
 
I don't know if its the easiest, but its what I've ended up with and most importantly I trust it and find it pretty simple to organize and follow.

Canna Terra Pro Plus medium (a hybrid between soil and coco)

Canna Terra nutrients (vega, flores, zym, rhyzo, pk, boost)

PH is 5.8-6.2

It has a handy dandy chart on its web page for mixing ratios depending on the size of your bucket.

I live in the UK, so don't know if its readily available elsewhere. I'm sure its not the cheapest.

Whatever you do you need to keep a journal and log what you are doing. That is probably more important than whatever you end up using. The most common screw ups are from not paying attention or forgetting.
 
I'm hoping to use one soil I can buy in bag form. I really don't want to mix my own. I also want one fertilizer I could use start to finish. That's simple to me.
 
giannid said:
I'm hoping to use one soil I can buy in bag form. I really don't want to mix my own. I also want one fertilizer I could use start to finish. That's simple to me.
Click to expand...

You can get most things on amazon. You can get time released medium like miracle grow, but it doesn’t work very well with weed. You can use something like hi-brix, but you will be feeding the soil as opposed to your plant, so I doubt you would save any time. You will need a number of different nutrients for a “normal” grow. Different ones are required at different times during the grow. You will need to mix them up with water at the right PH level.

Growing pot can be fun, but it does require a bit of planning, effort, and expense. If you decide to do it, you should keep a log otherwise your chances of success are greatly reduced. Maybe you should stick to buying it?

:nomo:
 
Growing from a bag without mixing is very difficult..

Well growing weed is easy...you are making it difficult on yourself for no reason.

There is only one bag soil that comes close enough to the right perlite to be used without help with recommendation. That is the high porous or HP version of Promix. With that you can do alright.

No bag mix has really what you want. You have to fight it.

Nothing out there has enough perlite for optimal growth. All of it is heavy and meant to be thinned out.

Not that you need it to grow fast or max out but it sure is nice.
 
Like you Giannid in 2017 when it became legal in Massachusetts I went to a local grow store to buy a tent etc. and I was sold Roots Organic soil and Aurora Soul fertilizer which came in an eight pack of bottles some for veg some for bloom and others you can or don't have to use. I've had six grows and for the most part am happy with them. I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes here just offering my experience with one of the products you mentioned. I grow in soil in pots in a tent with a 400 watt HP light, do a lot of reading and have made my share of mistakes. Some food for thought. Good luck one and all.
 
VilliageIdiot said:
Growing from a bag without mixing is very difficult..

Well growing weed is easy...you are making it difficult on yourself for no reason.

There is only one bag soil that comes close enough to the right perlite to be used without help with recommendation. That is the high porous or HP version of Promix. With that you can do alright.

No bag mix has really what you want. You have to fight it.

Nothing out there has enough perlite for optimal growth. All of it is heavy and meant to be thinned out.

Not that you need it to grow fast or max out but it sure is nice.
Click to expand...

Looks like I have a local supplier of the Promix HP. Not cheap but that makes things easy.
 
giannid said:
Reddot55, what did you settle on as the best/simplest combination?
Click to expand...
I use the Roots Organic soil in a pot and the Aurora Soul fertilizer which comes with a schedule of use. I may be way off here but I have never tested for the PH of soil. Be careful not to overwater do some reading on that subject. As far as the fertilizer goes- the soil itself will certainly take care of the seedling growth and several weeks afterwards. After I have transplanted them into a bigger pot be it a one or three gallon I still water two to three times to each fertilization. This is what has worked for me and frankly all I've ever tried. Most of the people in this forum have much more experience than me I only responded because I happen to use what you mentioned-Roots Organic soil. Please anyone who disagrees with what I've suggested feel free . . . Best of luck.
 
Man soil is a complex thing and I could bore ya to death but there are lots of great books on it. I learned by digging in the dirt.

What I tell newbs on here...is how to get started. Not how to crash your grow trying to push it like I do.

How to make truly fantastic soil is a conversation.

How to make weak soil anyone can do.

It is up to you how you want to do this. No answer is wrong. I help people use chemicals all the time to make flowers. It really doesn't matter if you know what you are doing.

But like I asked...what is simple?

Opening a bag up and then following a bottle recipe sounds easy but in my opinion is harder. Even if you do that you will learn thay no bottle has it all. They don't want to sell you that. No one does.

So you end up with a bunch of stuff either way. You will have to learn how to dose stuff if you want awesome plants either way.

There is no easy way out of feeding correctly really. It is like loosing weight... eat right and exercise. No magic pill exists.

You have to make a medium the roots will thrive in and feed the plant. Somehow it all has to get in there one way or another.

In the begining I don't recomend jumping all into making your own stuff.

But absolutely don't waste time learning on dead toxic overfeed soil. If you want to actually learn to grow in soil then your goal is a thing called ROLS. I reuse the soil over and over. Each time it gets better and better results. It's is how nature works. People who grow in soil and pitch it will never understand the potential of soil growing. You could do so much better reusing it properly.

Do some research on ROLS and get a 20 gallon bin and start a compost pile.

The end result after some investment is autopilot growing.
 
Here's an example of a Flora Nova grow in coco...

315W CMH - Coco - CKS WW & DP Think Different Autos

He pulled 170 grams with the same light you're going to be using, but using coco--so maybe if you're still interested in coco you should check that out.

If you search the Grow Journal forum, you can find a lot of people having great results with Flora Nova. Many people have ran their entire crop with just the "bloom" formula. It's about as complete a fertilizer you're going to find in one bottle.

I think Osmocote Plus and Earth Juice's "Rainbow" mix are also complete all-in-one fertilizers. @Tead has done some work with Osmocote Plus in a "hempy bucket". It'd be a bit of a mix between what VI is describing, and feeding with bottle. You'd mix the osmocote up into the perlite, and then just add pH'd water throughout the grow cycle.

Not trying to step on anyone's toes in this thread, but I feel like most people get carried away trying to describe what they think is the best way to grow pot. I'm just trying to tell you the simplest I've seen work with good results, and not just based on my experience.

Is price a factor here? Because if not I'd totally reverse my recommendation and tell you to get a water-only soil mix from someone like KIS organics. It would be a living organic soil, so you could just use plain water on it throughout the grow. It will just cost an arm and a leg to ship it, but if the price isn't too much, you can't get simpler.
 
You want simple? Organic living soil. No nutes. No pH worries. Pure water. The plants grow themselves. You can help them along if you want, but you don't have to.
 
That is because you are awesome...I never said it wasn't easy. It is not fool proof.

Most people crash good soil when they start out.

You have no idea how much I agree with coco is easy to grow. I have never said it was hard. But you need to know a lot more to do it right than hydro or soil

If we are explaining to a beginner how to do their first grow...coco is not a nice thing to do to somone. You need a lot more equipment and knowledge to do that right. But yes anyone can do it. It is all very easy once you understand.


I know for a fact that I am not understood.

I am not talking to people who know what they are doing. I am talking to people on an FAQ about stuff that is very easy to find all this info online about.

I know a lot more about coco growing than I let on. I happen to play stupid and write dumb for a reason.

This guy wants help on how to get started down the path. Coco is not basic. That is not a good starting point. Just like autos. Totaly awesome to play with. Not good for newbs.

Whatever though...I know you rock...that isn't the point as I understand though.

I believe this person is asking guidance on how to get started in this as a very inexperienced newb.
 
Then I suggest the basic guide to growing that is a sticky on this forum. Everything else is simply one grower's opinion vs another. Personally, I think getting a bag of miracle grow and a pH pen is easier than hydro or learning to mix nutes in coco, supply oxygen etc.... but everyone has that method that they will gravitate towards and consider superior to all the others. Simple for one person is complicated for another. I find a lot of value in teaching new people how a regular plant grows in regular soil, and then after seeing how this plant grows and stretches, flowers and harvests... then they are ready to move on to more interesting systems.
 
Exactly my point.

Let's teach them the way to grow that literally is easiest to learn and fastest to teach you about the plant.

Let them go from there...come back and ask how to do hydro after they know how to cure.

All of this is very clearly documented all over the net. Many ways to grow.

I happened to use science to come up with my mix but hey I am an engineer who had a partner with an advanced degree in horticultural.

You do you. I can explain why the 3 part works but it takes some time ... in short steer manure is not just compost. It is why I don't understand using coco when steer manure is 3 bucks a bag with magic pee.
 
VilliageIdiot said:
Exactly my point.

Let's teach them the way to grow that literally is easiest to learn and fastest to teach you about the plant.

Let them go from there...come back and ask how to do hydro after they know how to cure.

All of this is very clearly documented all over the net. Many ways to grow.

I happened to use science to come up with my mix but hey I am an engineer who had a partner with an advanced degree in horticultural.

You do you. I can explain why the 3 part works but it takes some time ... in short steer manure is not just compost. It is why I don't understand using coco when steer manure is 3 bucks a bag with magic pee.
Click to expand...
I've never seen a bag of composted steer manure at my local shop. It's all hot shit. Literally.
 

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