I understand about the bugs. But fox farm has the bug and not so well drainage with a high price. I like how soil has a good base so you can relax on the nutes but with things like coco I'm seeing crazy results with the insane root growth
I believe Pro-Mix HP with 20-25% more perlite (and 1tbsp/gal fine dolomite), and GH Flora 3-part is the most problem-free way to grow. No built-in nutes, immediate feedback from the plant, no investment in hydro equipment. Feed at ph 5.8 in veg, 6.2 in flower. Follow the so-called
"useless" schedule.
I had great results with that. I'd highly recommend it to beginners (not implying your a noob. But, sometimes it's good to start over with something new. And that's perfect for such a reset.). Just use RO and add 3-5ml calmag to replace the lost minerals. (You might be able to use some amount of tap water and RO to get 150ppm and not use calmag. But, I used calmag and RO.).
After I did that for awhile I wanted a more "normal" soil grow. I added Kellogg Patio Plus. You could do the same thing with any soil. I chose Kellogg because it's cheap. 50-60% Pro-Mix, 20-25% Kellogg, 20-25% Perlite. Very light soil, not like your Fox Farms soils. At that point I didn't feel GH Flora 3-part was appropriate because it's soil. I switched to a soil fertilizer (Grow More Sea Grow). I unraveled what I had been feeding with GH[1] and replicated it with Grow More.[2]
I guarantee you won't be sorry doing that with GH (although GH was just purchased by Scotts-MiracleGro.). I think you could go straight to the light soil I described and you'd do well using any nutrients as long as you get the kind of NPK ratios described here. (The PPM strengths are a bit of a mystery to me because I got by with much stronger feeding with GH. When I fed GM that strong I got salt buildup. I think it has something to do with GM containing organic components, not purely synthetic like GH. So, if you use a different nutrient than the two mentioned here, you have to be flexible with the strength to find what's right.).
[1]
--------------- R A T I O S
-------- N-P-K ----------- K-Mg-Ca -------- PPM
VEG
week-1 1.32-1.00-2.41 -- 6.76-1.00-2.15 --- 418
week-2 1.85-1.00-3.06 -- 8.08-1.00-2.82 --- 721
week-3 2.06-1.00-3.31 -- 8.54-1.00-3.07 --- 830 [1a]
BLOOM
week-1 1.00-1.29-1.88 -- 4.54-1.00-1.77 --- 1020
week-2 1.00-1.47-1.70 -- 3.75-1.00-1.90 --- 1065
week-3 1.00-1.52-1.71 -- 3.65-1.00-1.88 --- 1218
week-4 1.00-1.72-1.87 -- 3.53-1.00-1.66 --- 1334
week-5 1.00-2.21-2.25 -- 3.33-1.00-1.31 --- 1395 [1b]
week-6 1.00-2.70-2.36 -- 2.91-1.00-1.23 --- 1421
week-7 1.00-3.16-2.72 -- 2.88-1.00-1.05 --- 1384
That's the results using the unmodified schedule. However, I added GH liquid Koolbloom (LKB) during flower, and powdered Koolbloom (PKB) the final week (prior to 10-20 days of water only). The following is how it turned out:
week-2 1.00-1.92-2.16 -- 4.75-1.00-1.90 -- 1275 [1c]
week-3 1.00-2.12-2.31 -- 4.95-1.00-1.88 -- 1534 [1d]
week-4 1.00-2.53-2.68 -- 5.07-1.00-1.66 -- 1755 [1e]
week-5 1.00-4.09-3.34 -- 5.07-1.00-1.22 -- 1165 [1f]
[1a] Repeat until bloom.
[1b] Cut dose in half if using bloom booster.
[1c] 2ml/gal LKB
[1d] 3ml/gal LKB
[1e] 4ml/gal LKB
[1f] Cut base nutes in half, as described in the Useless schedule. Use 1.25g/gal PKB.
[2]
http://rollitup.org/t/grow-more-fertilizer.621368/page-5#post-11444678
