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Soil or Soiless? Which is better

G

Guest

Please discuss. Im a little devided as to which medium works best. I was thinking theres nothing better than nature but what do the pro's think? :chin:
 

inflorescence

Active member
Veteran
SedatedPeasant said:
I was thinking theres nothing better than nature...

It's not that soiless is better than nature, it's just that if your're growing indoors, you're not really growing in a "natural" environment and soiless is more areated and the nutes can act more like hydro. When I say soiless i mean like promix peat mixes.
 

lifetime

Member
i like knowing at all times how much nutes my plants are receiving, therefor i like using SOILESS! i find it much easier to control nute burn and easy to dial-in feedings for my babies. with soil mixes its easier to burn your plants or put in too much, too little, such a headache! peat moss, perlite, and d.lime are all you need!
 
V

vonforne

The debate rages on.......

To me a soil mix is any thing naturally occuring as a carbon based substance.......peat, coco ect.

To me a soiless mix is anything that is an inert substance like rockwool, Hydrotron clay pellets. Your plants could not survive on these alone. In peat they would grow. Look like shit but still grow. and when peat finally breaks down it will turn to dirt like everything else we compost. Have you ever tried to compost rockwool?
 

Lucky 7

Active member
if you do much transplanting/carrying buckets, you'll soon go soilless for the light quality/ease of moving things around. Fox Farm makes some dynamite products . . .
 
G

Guest

Soil is defiantely more forgiving and probably better for an inexperienced grower,but like vonforne I'm not sure we can all agree on just what "soiless" means.I've heard people say promix is soiless,to me its definately soil.Vonforen seems to have about the best definition for soil/soiless that I've heard here.One thing I've learned is If I'm not growing in straight water,I wont let my ph drop below 6.Use promix(supposedly soiless to some folks) without dolomite and let your ph drop below 6,you'll soon see what I'm talking about.I use ocean forest now I think we can all agree its a non-ferted soil.O yea thats right a lot of people think ocean forest is preferted lol we've had that argument before..Any preferted soil will have an NPK rating,ocean forest doesnt,marine cuisine does.
 
G

Guest

When u say that its easier to dial in ur ferts in a soiless mix, what do u mean by that? Do u follow the directions on label? I have FF GrowBig, BigBloom, and TigerBloom for ferts. How would u dial in these nutes in a soiless mix as an example. I use 40% FFOF, 40% LightWarrior, and 20% perlite as my medium. I vegged for a month and fed them GrowBig at 1/2 tsp per gallon of water. I repotted and switched to 12's on 11/18/06 and fed them as directed 1/2 cup of bigbloom per gallon of water. Its been 5 days and there are white hairs inbetween everybranch now. Are these the first signs of flowering? The reason i ask is because the Bigbloom label says to use at first signs of flowering and so the does the Tigerbloom. The Tigerbloom says to use in combination with Bigbloom. How do the good people here mix these two and how much do u use? I havent used any Tigerbloom yet.
 

highasakite

Member
you have everything i have...... FFOF soil grow big and big bloom. i keep it simple all that mixing. i can't do i don't have the nerv's for all that. As far as the the directions on the label. in the blooms case i know it says a 1/2 cup. i would start at a 1/4 and work your way up to the 1/2 cup when the plants are pretty big. the only other thing is use is safer's oxygen plus. my plants are healthy i grow the Grapefruit fantastic plant. now the grow big i only honestly use that stuff 1time a month cause it is so strong. it jacked my plants the first time i used it. so i'm real carefull with it now. here are some photos hope i helped.


 

cocogrow

New member
soil vs soiless

soil vs soiless

As far as soil to soiless either way is very efficiant if done correctly but for the beginner stick with soil.
 
G

Guest

And the winner is....SOIL!!! Lets give a round of applause to all our contestants.
 
G

Guest

Was there ever any doubt?When you have punkass fem names like "coco" and "perlite" lol.Give me a manly name like "dirt" anytime and it'll whoop "coco's" ass every time...
 

Ganico

Active member
Veteran
Yeah, peatmoss and perlite? What kind of mix is that? You need compost and worm shit. Compost+worm shit= good soil, much better than any weakass peatmoss and perlite mix. Even without the perlite, but add some perlite and it's a miracle.
 

highasakite

Member
maybe this "Skeletor" was funny cause i'm stoned :smoker: ........ no he is pretty funny. what is also funny is i was going to put dirt at the begining of my earlier post. i should have went with my gut. but yeah man go with the dirt it's way better for you the smoker and the plant. by means of taste and over all health of the plant

SKELETOR said:
Was there ever any doubt?When you have punkass fem names like "coco" and "perlite" lol.Give me a manly name like "dirt" anytime and it'll whoop "coco's" ass every time...
 
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