New grower / need some advice!

[CosmicDrifter]

Hello! I’m just getting everything together for my first grow and need some help with the medium. I picked up some sunshine advanced mix #4 off the advice from the employee at the store. I’ll be using foop and a couple other products from MicrobeLife. My questions are: Am I just going from bag to pot with the mix? Do I need to do anything to the mix before I plant the seed? It says ph adjusted, doe that mean I don’t need to ph the water? Am I looking for runoff when feeding? Any help, advice, tips is greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

 

[BigCube]

That is just a base medium. Very close to what I use. It has no nutrients in it. Only ph buffers and mycorrhizae. You will need to add your own.

 

[mysticepipedon]

Yes, you should pH your water. If your soil is at an acceptable pH (6.1-6.5), water with a higher or lower pH can change the pH of the soil, eventually.

Try mixing in a balanced organic fertilizer, like Happy Frog or whatever. You may also need a little gypsum (not dolomite if the pH is already where you want it). Organic nutrients mixed into your potting mix will probably adequately supply your plants for 4 to 6 weeks. You can either supplement with nutrients in the irrigation water after that, or make organic teas.

You want to water thoroughly, without a lot of runoff (unless something is fucked up and you need to flush something out of your soil). You want all the soil in the pot to be damp when you're done watering. Then don't water again until the pot starts feeling light in weight. You can check the pH of the water that runs out the bottom of the pot to get an idea of what's happening in the soil. If it's significantly different from the pH of the water that went in, something could be amiss.