Just make sure to
transplant up. What nutrient approach are you going to take?
I imagine since you are depending on the pre-existing nutrients in your soil now, you would want to continue down this path and stray away from synthetics?
In the case you do choose this path, you want to amend your new soil before transplanting up. Make sure with each transplant the soil you mix up has the proper nutrients in it to facilitate the plants current stage of growth. Ideally you will want to have your soil pre-amended before planting, inoculated with an AACT and then planted in.
Right now you're going to be adding to the soil biology. Pick yourself up some worm castings and spread a good handful or two on the top of the soil. You can also add some crustacean meal, alfalfa and kelp. Water it all in. Follow up with a couple compost tea's per week, and side dressing as needed.
In this case, you're going to want to choose the route you want to take in terms of nutrient application.
The example above I gave you was for dry amendments.
You can always go with a bottled line such as, "
Nectar For The Gods". It's killer shit, and the owner Scott is a stand up dude.
Planting small into big containers can cause a number of issues, so always transplant up when aiming for a larger, final growing container. Having a large, soggy sack/pot of soil sitting a room that's 72 Degree's at 45% relative humidity, with a 6 inch plant in the middle, isn't going to dry out very quickly. At all. You DO NOT need to transplant up if you're familiar with "training" the roots out with strategic waterings. Basically watering a little bit outside of the last place you watered, starting at the root ball and ultimately ending up on the outer edge of the container.
Saturating the soil can cause root rot as well.
Personally bro, I wouldnt go any bigger than what you're in.
Take the transplanting as the hermit crabs do their shells. Once they outgrow their shell, they move into a slightly bigger one that is just the RIGHT fit. Not too big. Not too small. Just enough room to expand. Except in our case, our hermit crab finds its final shell relatively fast, settles in, and flourishes.
-sK
