quick soil question from a beginner

what is the best kind on potting soil to get? i just inherited some clones from a friend and i put them into some scotts premium potting soil mix from home depot. it said it feeds for up to four months so i got it. anyone had any experience with scotts/ any suggestions on if i should fertilize them and when. im pretty new to this and im kinda limited to home depot and walmart stores

Ur soil has nutes in it... Ull need 2 b carfull as if u add nutes u could burn them... Y alot of peep say 2 use a soiless mix,and add ur nutes...However if u keep em in the soil ull hv 2 add nutes when all in the soil is used up.

the nutes in scotts are rated at .0- all through npk u will feed as if regular soil.

If it feeds for four months I'd say it has fertilizer added to it and I would be careful you don't burn the clones, depending on their size and root structure. Look on the package and if ot doesn't say safe for seedlings I wouldn't be adding any nutes to the water until the plant started showing signs of needing fed. If you got them from a friend you might just go with what he uses and then if you have problems he will be able to tell you what to do since you'll be using the same stuff.

As far as good soils to use are Pro Mix, used exclusively by countless people, $8 for organic and $7 for standard, I get better results with organic but both work well.

You also have many people who defend Fox Farms till the end but it's usually around $25 - $28 a bag, depends on ifyou want to spend that kind of money or not. I get the results I want with Pro Mix so I don't have any plans of changing.

I've used scotts for a few grows now with little issues. Like u were sayin, it's got very litte as far as nutes go, even if they say it'll feed for 4 months that aint gonna happen. I've found it does well with seedlings and new clones without burning any of them. Out of the bag, it come fairly high in N, with less than needed P and K. What it lacks imo, is ph buffering so u gotta watch ur ph, nutes are easy to add to any soil mix, it's the ph u gotta watch for. With scotts i first found it to tend to dip into the acidic levels of 4-5ph with, no lime for buffering, and 40% perlite added using fox farms products. As of right now, i've got the same soil with some lime added into it as well that just ran up to 8-8.5 ph causing a multitude of problems but i digress... My soil ph issues are the result of my own default, in the past i've had great results and will continue to in the future. U really gotta keep an eye on that ph, with ANY soil mix.

one of the most highly recommended soils on here is fox farm ocean forest potting soil. never heard anything but great things about this soil.