Alright guys. This will be my first real grow. 2nd if you count the super lemon haze seedling i fryed(no big deal i needed the room). Anyway im not a complete noob and did plenty of research for a successfull grow. to get to the point my question is will a 50/50 mix of perlite and ffof prevent my seeds from being burned or does the mineral composition of the perlite do little to cut the hot soil. I was previously using 60/30/10 ffof,peatmoss, pearlite. Funny cause i got that recipe off here. And i made a post about my diying plant and someone said peatmoss was shitty and recommended a 50/50 mix w/o peatmoss. Anyway this was when my plant was about 3 weeks old so will any mix of ffof and perlite be useful from seed after germing paper towel method and putting in solo cups(except for my autos) and if this will not be possible is there something cheap i can pick up from home depot or something to cut the ffof to save the trip to the hydro store(far away). Also i have a 600w hps for 8 plants (2 each of fruity chronic, thc bomb, dark devil(auto), and bubba kush) and want to know if i can use my adjustable ballast to drop it to 20 or 50 percent power and put the little girls under it directly after sprout and when woul it be best to bump up the power to 50 or full. I plan on only using thi soil for a couple weeks until i transplant into 3 gallon buckets. Also since the autos will be going straight into their final buckets what do you rec
(Last line) what do you recommend for the auto seeds to be planted in that wont kill the seed but have the nutes to carry it through its whole life? I kbow these questions may have been asked before but i can find nothing on the perlite ffof mix.
I've planted all my seeds straight into ffof (no germinating) and had success. Some people say its a little hot but that hasn't been the case for me. I just mix in a bunch of perlite (like 30%). Also if you are looking for soil that will have nutes for the whole life then you need to look into making your own super soil.
Thanks guys. And fonz i may have been unclear on what i meant for the autos soil. I just dont want to transplant the autos to precent stunting growth. I will add ffof trio nutes to it but i just wanted to know if a different soil was recommended for them because they will spend their whole life in it.
I find a mix of any general purpose bagged compost/soil mixed with peat or coco and perlite at a ratio of 1/1/1 works well for seedlings. You could start them in just peat or coco and perlite (2/1) in a two inch pot and after it's outgrown it in about a week pot up with your regular soil and perlite at a 2/1 ratio Simply adding perlite will work a bit as it holds water but doesn't give out any nutes itself so your soil and perlite of 1/1 mix would hold half the nutes of just the soil, peat and coco hold water a little more so they are better for diluting the nutrient strength
Thanks man just what i needed. Ill start a grow journal soon most likely if anyone has intrest. Just germed my 2 fruity chronic 2 dark devil autos 2 thc bomb and 2 bubba kush