I use grow dots with a coco heavy, soil mix. Run photos and autos with it. Gorw dots work well for autos. Just get the right one. There is an extended version for photos in a green bag. Green bag vegs 6 weeks, blue bag vegs 4 weeks. Ive done 3 and 5 gallon fabric pots. The blue bag worked well in 3 gallon pots. The green bag I mixed with the blue for the five gallom pots. Also worked well. I also add 1 tablespoon of gypsum and dolomite lime to the pots when first filling up my 3 gallons and 2 tablespoons each for 5 gallons. Ive only had to water the whole grows. From my experience it is a well balanced dry nute. If you hit issues with it, youre doing something wrong. Water too little, too much, or your light is too strong. (Mine is usually the light).
Ive heard people use just coco with it, but from what I've read/watched, it does better with about 20% soil or compost added. I run about 30% compost myself.
I feel like you can get better results with other fertilizers (bigger buds), but this one works well enough and is simple to use. I dont have a lot of time to spend in my garden so I like the simplicity of it. And you can grow some fire with it!
Just my thoughts,
Best of Luck! Happy Growing!