It's controversial with a lot of RIU'ers... All I can tell you is I started (and am still in ...at 8 weeks) my first grow with $5-a-bag MiracleGro potting soil (the pre-fertilized kind that says it feeds for three months). At six weeks, I've got four females at 36" tall, healthy, beautiful, dank and hairy as heck, and covered with thumb-sized buds right now.. If you just want to keep things simple the first time around, well... all I can say is it has worked great for me so far.
One warning: MG potting soil is "hot" -- has more nutrients than needed -- so your plants may look a little unhappy when they're in seedling stage (had this happen). But, after experimenting with trying to cure unhappy plants, I found the best thing to do was to cut back watering and leave them alone otherwise.
I grew four weeks without adding anything except plain water. Then, I started adding FoxFarm GrowBig at 3 tsp per gallon weekly after that. I'm going to Tiger Bloom this week... Point is, don't believe the "3-month" thing, especially if your plants really take off (bigger plants = need more nutrients, water, circulation, light -- everything). PM me if you have questions.
