Simple and easy to use recipe? House & Garden's soil 2 part. Super concentrated and fairly cheap considering. You can then play around with their additives after you get a few grows under your belt. Also, the nutrient calculator on their website is very good. Still mix your nutes to ppm setpoints but use their ratios.
I've used AN for years and so far they are the best in hydro for me. Tried FF, GH, and BC and they all had lesser results in side by side comparisons to AN in my room. Just started some soil plants a while back and decided to go the H&G route. Loving them so far. Been messing around with a few of their additives but right now I am using this stuff (
http://www.bountea.com/) that a friend of mine uses. It's basically just a simple tea recipe. You buy the Humisoil and the bioactivator and brew them up in a 5 gallon bucket with some airstones and a cheap reservoir heater or brew it in a warm place like next to a heater. It just needs to be kept around 75 degrees. Needs 24 hours to brew. I go with a nutes, tea, nutes, tea, water, etc.. schedule. I've gotta say, for soil this is the sickest shit. Just starting adding it to veg as well as adding the M3 and B3 to the brew. You won't need any additives whatsoever if you go the tea route. Just the 2 part soil nutrients and the tea. Maybe some molasses in the tea brew late in flower. Check out the website. The guy who developed this stuff holds a BUNCH of world record vegetable grows. Couple guys I know are using him as well as quite a few old timers I talk to.
So...my recommendation:
* House & Garden 2 Part Soil - $30 (total for 1 liter of both)
* Bountea Humisoil - $12 (20lb bag makes 25 gallons of tea. You then dilute the tea in water.)
* Bountea Bioactivator - $80 (5lb bag makes 25 gallons of tea. Is mixed with Humisoil to make the tea.)
* You will need a 5 gallon bucket, air pump, 1-2 air stones, and a reservoir heater or somewhere warm to keep the bucket while it is brewing.
Optional:
* Bountea M3 - $80 (5lb bag is a veg booster. If you do short veg cycles then this is not worth it.)
* Bountea B3 - $80 (5lb bag is a bloom booster. I would recommend this one for sure.)
* House & Garden Roots Excelurator - $65 (500ml. great additive for clones and early veg.)
That's just my $0.02