Soil and Fertilizer Questions. . .

Ive been having some troubles with my 3 week old plant. It is only 3-4 inches tall, with only about 8 tiny leaves (about the size of a fingernail). I know it hasnt grown well partly because of the shitty 120W incandescent flood lights I was using, but I am starting to get concerned that it may be the type of soil they are in as well.

I read in another thread that soil that has bark in it is very bad, it gets in the way of root growth and tends to be slightly too acidic. Is there truth to this? And if so should I consider completely changing my soil? I have ordered a 400W HPS which should be here in a few days, I think that will help the plant enormously, so should I wait and see how it responds to that before getting a different soil? What is a good (but affordable) type of soil for my plant?

Fertilizers. The tips of some of the leaves are turning yellow/brown. Again I think this is partly because of the heat from the 120W incandescents but I'm starting to wonder whether it is a result of lack of nutrients. Its been 3 weeks so I am guessing the nutrients in the original soil are almost exhausted, and the yellow leaves are a sign of nutrient deficiency. What is a good (but affordable) brand of fert? What is the best ratio to get?

Thanks again for any help!!!

Sounds like your using more of a compost mixture than an actual potting soil. I've been using shultz with no added ferterlizer and have had good luck. Any bark, leaves, ect. do bring up acidity level, that's why you have to put lime on your lawn if you have a lot of trees in your yard.
As for your lites, if you think you got heat problems from a 120w incondesant than watch out with the 400w hps. It will got HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yellow leaves from over watering or to much fertz. to early maybe I don't know. When you get the 400w you will see those babies grow, just watch your temp.
Later dude, Redeyed :o :p :D

Incandescent light === bullshit.

It doesn't matter how many watts of it you have it's still shit for growing stuff. They get way too hot and they're the wrong spectrum. The best lights for starting plants (in my opinion, and many other people's opinion) are fluorescents. They have a good spectrum for plant growth, they don't get too hot, they're cheap to run and pretty cheap to buy. Your 400w HPS will obviously be far better than the incandescents you're currently using but you don't need 400w to start young plants, it just seems like a waste of power (if you're concerned about power consumption). I would get hold of some fluorescents to start seedlings/ root cuttings/ keep mother plants and use your HPS for flowering only; this way you can have a continuous growth system---
buds come out, clones go in, buds come out, clones go in etc, etc.

Soil- regular compost from the garden center works fine, I use it, always have. It's cheap and you don't have to adjust the pH or anything. It will support young plants for about 3 or 4 weeks before you need to fertilize. I get a huge compacted bag for just over a fiver, it's never let me down- touch wood. I mix it with perlite and vermiculite or sometimes just perlite.
Fertilizer- I've used Miracle-Gro (15/30/15) in the past but it always seems to burn the plants no matter how careful you are with it (it's a chemical feed). This time round I've gone for the organic feed BIO-BIZZ. You get Bio-Bizz-Grow for vegetative growth and Bio-Bizz-Bloom for flowering. I got this from http://www.growell.co.uk

I wish you all the best,

catch ya later

It sounds like more of a problem with the lights then soil. Change the light to cool white fluorescents and dump the floodlight. Spend a few dollars or you may not make it to the end.