I'm growing on a budget, inside a 2x2x5 tent. What is the best grow medium and nute combo that I can get for CHEAP? I don't wanna go for the least expensive if it's REALLY awful, but I wanna find the least expensive option with best results, if ya know what I mean... What do you guys say?
well if u wanna keep the cost low get miracle grow but i would get foxfarm its the best one in my opinion and its not tht expensive
you can buy a bag of fox farm happy frog organic potting soil (4lbs) for around $16 at the hydro store (if you have one). If not any fox farm soil is going to be expensive to order online. I've heard good things about some of the miracle grow soils (although I wouldn't use them) do a search, I think the MG soil you need to flush before planting to avoid burning young plants...not %100 though
People will say bad things about MG but people here are right, for the money you can't really beat it. If you go to Home Depot or Wal Mart you can find other types of soil there too that are much "lighter" on the nutrients so they are better for seed starting. What I will be doing on my next grow is making my own using composts and some cheap Wal Mart soil. I find that adding my own natural compost (and stuff that I know where it came from) is a lot better for the plant than stuff that's put together in a warehouse. If you have leftover vegetables and stuff that are going bad I would throw it all into a blender and make a puree out of it, then add it to whatever cheap soil you go with. Adding natural nutrients won't burn your seeds and will supply nutrients for a few weeks after sprout. Some will tell you to flush MG before using it. I have tried a couple seeds straight into the "moisture control" type of MG and the seeds flourished in it. You just have to control watering on it much better than other soils because watering is what releases the fertilizers in the soil. I found that foliage feeding with a spray bottle worked really well for seedlings because it didn't allow as much of the time released nutrients to be soaked into the soil. Then when the seedling produces its first set of leaves you can start regular watering since it will be able to better use control the nutrients on its own.
Black Gold is fairly common in most areas. I believe BG is made by Sunshine which makes promix. Cheapest way is to make your own basic soil is by combining a mixture of 1/3 Canadian peat moss, 1/3 earth worm casting, and 1/3 perlite or, pumice. You can also add to this mix coir and other compost and a dry starter fertilizer like Epsoma. When using peat moss add dolomite lime to neutralize the soil ph