if you're looking for an easy alternative to getting beneficial fungi, try looking at some foxfarms light warrior as a starting medium for seedlings- it claims to have mycorrhizal fungi which is what you want. then you can transfer to Ocean Forest. for a beginner grower in soil, i'd say go with that, you won't have to worry about nutes either for a good while, maybe even until flowering depending on your veg period.
read up on this thread and you'll get a better grasp on what products really offer and how they work, it's worth knowing.
this is uncle bens thread, the man knows his stuff.
https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/182500-mycorrhizal-fungi-applications-cannabis-caveats.html
a fungi supplier-
http://www.mycorrhizae.com/?cid=167
-look at their products and what they offer, no gimmicks, just good stuff at a good price. one of the products requires 6oz to properly mix 100 gallons. you can buy 4oz for $19.99- how many gallons is that? not only that but you don't even need to apply every time you water! you can if you want to or just drench the soil once before growing bud in it and you're set! also, as if you need any more reason to consider this product, it has a storage life of 2 years
also i read about a npk ratio of 10-30-20 being too high in N for flowering and i'd say that isn't the case. actually that particular product is jack's classic blossom booster. during the flowering period, N is still needed for the plant to continue proper growth and you'll actually be getting fatter buds because of the provided N.
in simple terms- N is used in a plant for foliage growth and guess what? bud is a part of that collective foliage growth, if you let up on N then your plant is deficient for proper foliage growth= lower yields.
yes, you don't need high levels of N for flowering, mainly for vegging but you still need it. you should notice how the P-K is high in the blossom booster while the N is much lower at 10.
in jack's classic orchid special, which has 30-10-10, the npk is great for vegging. you see the reduced pk? those are needed more for flowering but still needed nonetheless, just like N is for flowering. and after vegging, the blossom booster is great for flowering. this makes much more sense than "plant specific" nutes-------- a plant is a plant no matter what and follows the rules of plants, and will always require the 16 elements to grow.
but hey, each to their own, if it works for you then great, i'm not here to bash on anyones "method"
