Grow Mediums Ready for second planting; tell me about Pro-Mix HP+

[Auto-Bud-Man]

Hi,
I'm a new grower. I've got one plant going at 26 days and am about ready to plant another but before I did, I wanted to verify what the best mix of soil was.

I got a bag of Fox Farms Ocean Forest and a bag of Pro-Mix HP+ and a bag of Perlite.

On my first grow I used this mixture:

1 Part OF
1 Part Pro-Mix HP+
1 Part Perlite.

I did this because I was afraid that the OF was too hot for my seedling and I reasoned that the PMHP+ would tone it down a bit. I'm not sure if that was sound reasoning or not but that's my reasoning.

I'm now going to start on my second plant and I was wondering if this was the best mix or do any more experienced growers see a better idea like leaving out the Pro-Mix or putting more in or whatever. I'm all ears.

I'm going to be using MegaCrop for nutes.

I'm using an Octopot which is a self-wicking watering system; the water is sucked up through the soil and the plant reaches down to the water. The nutes are put in the base and wick up into the dirt/sleeve.

This time I plan on planting in a solo cup first and then transplanting into the 6 gallon Octopot.

 

[Auto-Bud-Man]

Well, after some research it appears that Pro-Mix HP+ is a soiless medium with no nutes and OF is a soil with timed release nutes. They are two very different animals.

It appears that I have the following options:

1.) Grow in OF. That will alleviate the need for nutes until flowering.

2.) Grow in Pro-Mix HP+. That will necessitate using the MegaCrop nutes.

3.) Grow in a mixture of both as I already have. I don't want to do this.


It's scary, but I'm leaning towards using the Pro-Mix HP+ and the MegaCrop nutes and see how it goes. The OF would be easier as I wouldn't really have anything to do for quite a while but that's a bit boring to me.

Maybe one of both and see how each does?

 

[AutoWonders]

Grow in OF. That will alleviate the need for nutes until flowering.

That is a little ambiguous. No nutes are needed for the first 3-4 weeks. Flowering can often come later.

wouldn't really have anything to do for quite a while but that's a bit boring to me.

You can always move to coco if you want more to do. I've been using Coco Loco for a few years and get really nice roots. Happy growing.

 

[Mizzo81]

I believe Pro-Mix is peat which is being harvested from peat bogs in Canada and I would use what u have and not buy anymore. Peat is reusable but not as renewable as people think it takes centuries for the peat bogs to develop and harvesting them can have environmental impact in fact in may have already. Coco is a good alternative @AutoWonders i also used coco loco for a couple years and have recently switched to botanicare coco readygro. I won’t be using coco loco anymore. In fact I’ll be buying another bag of botanicare unless my local guy started carrying growpito which I doubt happened yet.

 

[Auto-Bud-Man]

I ended up planting both in OF because they will both be on the same autopot watering system and I didn't want to fuss with watering them with PH water and then adding nutes over the top for one of them only.

My current grow is doing great; it's a mixture of OF and Pro-Mix HP+.

The seed planted on 9/24 is doing great in the OF.