Personally I always recommend for someone to pick if they want to feed the plants (bottled nutrients) or feed the soil (ammendments) .
If you want to use bottled nutrients then don't use soil, use coco, will be much easier to control, easier to flush if you get it wrong, better oxygen to roots.
Using pH with coco is a must.
With coco use 4 to 7 gallon fabric pots
With soil, I would suggest buying a pre-made Clackamas Coots soil recipe such as Buildasoil V3 or Oly Mountain, or maybe a Coast of Maine.
With soil you should not use synthetic nutrients IMO it completely negates the reason for soil which is the microbes.
Soil should be in no smaller than 15 gallon fabric pots, bigger the better.
Then plant a cover crop of clover, peas, Flax, buckwheat etc. Lay down about an inch of chopped up barley straw at first until the cover crop is about 4" tall then add another 2-3" of barley straw.
Inoculate the soil with mycorrhazae then add a handful of worms in the pot, then add some Rove beetles and predator mites for fungus gnat control.
Keep this soil moist at all times never let it dry out not even the top 1/4".
Plant a seed into a solo cup in seedling soil and let it grow until the roots just touch the bottom of solo cup which should be 7 days after cracking the surface.
Dust the hole in final pot with Optiveg and mycorrhazae and plant seedling, water in with dechlorinated water with aloe vera.
Gently lift up areas of the barley straw mulch and sprinkle on some quality Bokashi, the next day when you lift the straw it should be white with fungus this is good don't freak.
Once the cover crop gets thick then chop down most of it thin it out, chop up and put most under the straw for worms.
Now just add a handful of Bokashi and Craftblend every two weeks and water in with oxygenated dechlorinated water with Aloe vera and coconut water.
If your soil is correct you should be able lightly water about 6 days a week.
One of those days you deep water until 1 drop comes out bottom.
Thats it, just water and watch it grow, you feed the soil and worms and they feed the plants.
No need for a pH meter unless your water is insane like in the 5s or 8s
As long as its between 5.8 to 7.5 you should be fine the soil with take care of it.
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