I use fox farm ocean forest soil , using a 3.5 galon pot of it last me a little more then a month and I dont have to add anything but plain PH'd water..after that month I use the 3 pack of fox farm and try to stick with the schedule as best I can, you can still feed most strains very light nutes when they are still using the soil but some strains will burn however it wont kill them if your gentle. I use foxfarm beastie bloomz 2-3 times during flower also.
It is my first grow and this setup has worked good for me so far, If I used hydro I would likely just use GH.
A fox farm setup is a lot cheaper then most setups and it is pretty clean stuff not to aggressive..The soil is kind of expensive but thats what you get when you have someone mix yer soil for you but time is money ya know? Run about 18$ a bag, but if you think about it 1 month of nutes for a few plants is about 18$ anyway unless your using AN or something. (if you include the cost of the medium you would otherwise be using)...
It is gunna be cheaper to use promix or supersoil or coco or whatever in the long term if you grow lots of plants but for a small amount of plants I am happy I went with fox farm. Fox farm is also nearly 100% organic (the exception being the grow big) but growbig is amazing stuff.
