Wet/dry nutes

I have never tried it mate, but its all the same really, your just buying the nuits minus the water. 

What I would do is dissolve it first then water the plants. If you give the powder form the top it might not dissolve properly, and you could get hot spots. But if Mr Canuck is doing ok with it, then give it a shot? 

@rufio that’s a good question bro

there are advantages to both.. 

dry amendments are typically cheaper than liquid feeds but offer less control of nutrition compared to liquid feed.
It is easy to burn plants if too much dry nutes in the pot, and easy to run out of not enough.. 

You should consider your goals to help you decide....

How much time and effort do you have to feed/ water/ mix nutrients?

is organic important to you ? (In both cases there are options available)

Both can deliver great results.. living soil is also an option... lots of info on this site to help..

Ive not used auto pots but from my understanding using auto pots, you’d be better with dry nutrients in the soil as the auto watering works best with water only to avoid salt build up in the bottom of the pots as you’ll be bottom watering using these.

you got a lot of options so it comes down to personal preference... consider you goals and how best to achieve them bro

good luck and happy growing 

I'm confused - is the question whether or not it's okay to apply powdered nutrients directly to the medium, as opposed to dissolving them in water first?  

I am a hydro grower (but I have grown in soil and coco/perlite) and I use all powdered nutrients with the exception of silica.  I used liquid nutrients for awhile before I switched.  

I think Rufio is referring to mr Canuck preloading his soil with slow release dry amendments (npk + macro nutrients) then just water only throughout the grow ..

ie making a ‘super-charged soil with enough food for the whole life cycle from final potting up

To add.., Rufio

I’d consider learning to water your plants by hand, especially when in early stages of learning to grow... 

In the longer run you’ll have a better feel for what your plants want, and how much is enough/ too little / too much.

(Over)watering / feeding are probably the most common early mistakes made.. you’ll need to make some mistakes to learn and improve your skills... it’s a very resilient plant to work with so don’t over-worry - now you’re here at percys there’s plenty of help and good advice to call on when and as you need it !

Apologies guys should have been clearer, Chillbert has it right. Thinking of pre loading soil and just feeding with water...

that makes perfect sense Chillbert, only issue I could see going that road is there will possibly be a weekend or maybe 2 where there won’t be anyone in the house, so was thinking the autopot might work with that.

all my bits should be arriving in the next few days. Got my seeds today, that got me excited to start.

whats brands would you reccomend? Gaia green seems to be US based. 

I’m in uk but I’ve heard good things of gaia ...

I’ve also been recommended sohum and build a soil site in USA has premixed soils for water only. 
get some friendly microbes and mycorrhizal in your mix too 👍

@rufio there are short term watering solutions available for those long weekends away...

A temporary drip feed or wicking system can set up easily enough if you haven’t got a friend to look after them 👍

@chillbert will look into them, not gonna lie I’ve no idea what mycorrhizal is, all this stuff is very new to me. Smoking years and can’t believe I never ventured down this road before, but hey at least I got there in the end.