Okay so I have 3 cheese seeds from seedsman germinating and just planted them today. I went to my local Walmart trying to find some fox farms soil but could not find any. Also stopped at Lowe's afterwards and they also didn't have fox farms soil. I ended up getting miracle grow premium organic potting soil along with some worm castings. Kinda weary of any miracle grow products but that's the best looking organic soil I could find sadly.. When I get home and plant my seeds I notice a tiny looking white bug crawling around in the soil and I have no idea what it is. I'm hoping someone might have some ideas on what it is and if it will be harmful to my seedlings or not. I'll probably end up ordering some fox farms soil online anyways but if anyone has experience with this miracle grow organic soil I would love to hear about it. And with my lighting I'm using a cfl right now until the plants are a little bigger then I plan on upgrading to a vivosun LED light on Amazon. I really half assed this and didn't plan much through. I'm just hoping these little white bugs don't eat my little girls alive within the first week of their life. Thank you for reading this and thank you for any suggestions or tips I get. Anything would be helpful.
Bugs are never good. MG is crap for cannabis. With the available nutrients today, you can grow in gravel. I know because I do... My medium is inert. (no bugs too) Indoor soil grows are, in my opinion, far closer to hydroponics than outdoor gardening. The plants use up the good stuff in the soil so fast that it would require huge pots to not have to fertilize. So, specifically for indoor, containers grows, the soil makeup is not nearly so critical as you are going to add whatever is missing with your watering mix. There is a balance required here as well. If you mix up soil with a ton of additives like bone meal, worm castings, manure and such, and your plants don't use the available elements equally, when you go to fertilize, you can easily over feed somewhere. I advocate the simplest methods for first timers... Purchased soils like you are describing are mostly peat moss. They have humus and fillers and sometimes (in the case of MG) added ferts (that you really don't know what they are)... They are intended for houseplants that grow generally slowly. Fast growing and resource intensive plants like cannabis simply won't be supported properly in small containers without additional feeding over time. SO, why not eliminate the variables? Go with a simple soil, good water retention and drainage, and provide the rest of the plants needs with a balanced and stable nutrient? The state of the industry is such that now it is really easy to find a nutrient that will make soil choice and maintenance irrelevant. On the other hand, folks that want strict "organic" grows need to look at MUCH larger containers so adding ferts is unnecessary. Compost teas and such are totally viable as well, but again, we are getting more into hydroponics than conventional gardening here. Bottom line... Your soil (or other medium) choices are far more determined by the availability of Cannabis specific nutrients (or at least really fast release fertilizers and container size) than what you would mix up for your garden.