I have had 2 runs with fastbuds autos and only had a pheno on this last one. I use nutes as well as their soil. When it comes to feeding, if you are using nutes and soil the soil is hot enough to support your seedling for at least the first 30 days of life. You should not need to feed them anything other than water for the first 30 days. You should start looking for the plant to show signs of hunger around that time. If you try to feed them before that, there is a good chance that you will burn em. Also when you do start to feed them I would suggest half dosage AT MOST. As you gain more experience you will learn to read your plants more than trying to use some pre-set plan suggested by the manufacturer.