Grow Medium Questions from a nub,... please sir can I have some more (free advice)?

Hello all, I'm here for some advice on growth medium selection and hoping you can help guide me to success.

Just got my first seeds(NL), and have begun the germination process but I'm still not sure what I will actually be growing in.

I was leaning towards good old fashion soil, as I read its very newbie friendly. But recently I am afraid I have gotten myself a little confused and hope you guys can help me in my hour of need. I work an odd schedule so I will not be around at reliable intervals to water my plants so I will be using a water pump and lots of timers. What concerns me is the risk of over/under watering and I am left with the following questions.

Will soil be a suitable medium for an automatic watering setup? If so what type/mixes should I be looking for?

Would I be better off with a perlite/vermiculite mix and investing in some nutrients?

Thats it for now, however I am sure I will have many follow up questions, any advice or guidance would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
C

I am a soil grower so I can't really help you with any Hydroponics questions. Soil needs to be watered allowed to dry and then watered again, so you would have to fine tune your timers. If you do use soil; I don't think you can go wrong with the Fox Farms line of products. I use Happy Frog myself.

To clarify what I believe I have read.. you wish to go soil, with drip water/feed? Or was that you considering soil, but have determined hydro is the way? I'd highly recommend you check out Hempy.. it sounds like something that would benefit you re: work schedule. Check this out and let me know whatcha think: https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/369933-hempy-air-pot.html

chris, there are a thousand different ideas out there for how to grow and what to use. My input is only from my limited experience (but very happy). I have grown from seed so far. I took a few clones from my girls before they went into flower stage so I am hoping for a little easier time with next harvest. I debated many times on soil or hydro or aero etc. I finally landed on using coco and perlite. Very clean and easy to use. Very forgiving and easy to flush if you over do the nutes. Well thats my input. That and ten bucks will get you a cup of coffee at starbucks, but my girls are doing well and happy. Best of luck with the grow and keep us posted.

Hempy is a solid choice, normal germination -and- growing in soil is a good choice too.. depending on your patience and willingness to experiment, you can jump right into systems that could greatly amplify your yield, but have very minimal buffer should shit hit the fan (compared to soil, which is the most forgiving, generally speaking)

Have you looked into CoCo Coir? It has the forgiveness of soil and you can easily set up drips with timers... Plus the coco is really good at retaining and releasing moisture, so if you can't be around or if one of your timers fails, you could buy yourself some extra time before you notice the problem.
I've done hydro, I've done soil, and now I've settled on coco, best of both worlds.