Soil vs. Hydro

[Ogstradamus]

organice = live healthy plant.
chemicals = live healthy plant.

 

[Space Ghost]

Ive grown in soil, soilless and hydro and I choose soilless for many reasons

The main reason is power outages (they happen once in a while around these parts) because if your airpump loses power your entire crop will die (i lost 2 crops this way)

A good soilless medium matched with a nice organic arsenal can compete with hydro in growth rates and yeild, they are not quite as good granted, but they're close.

I never have to check anything anymore no ph, no ec, no nothing....

I think the taste and smell are improved with organics

Another big one for me is that growing in soil/soilless is much better for the environment because when you change the rez you are dumping all kinds of fertilizers into the local water system and this causes dangerous algaes to grow, but with soil/soilless all the ferts and water are used by the plants.

I dont mind the effort involved in soil growing (watering, transplanting, ect.) its a hobby.



maybe its just me, but soilless is the way to go.

 

[anonamauz]

well there's another angle on the debate- soilless. what's the benefit of soilless over soil? Why not use soil as the medium, and go organic once the soil is rid of nutes? I'd hate to rely solely on watering/feeding to nourish the plant- seems less forgiving.

 

[Guest]

i have been an organic grower since day one. never have i done Hydro. But i have smoked some a friend grew hydro. And i must say. His may have been a little more potent. MAYBE. but the flavor of my Dank, WEed, Chronic, Bomb shit. Was for sure there. Flavor and smell topped the hydro by 10 fold. Sometimes some strains just straight taste unpleasent in organic due to the natural taste of the strain. Like WW. I have a hard time smoking that as organic. Or White Rhino. Sour sour taste. But the high is great..

I too would like to know more about soiless mixes. and if you can use organic ferts? Or salt based?

 

[anonamauz]

any soilless gurus care to chime in?

 

[Stoney Girl]

I use a very simple method of growing in soil-less growing medium. I use Sunshine mix #2 because it is sterile and drains well while holding some water. I start with 1/2 bucket of Sunshine #2 mixed thouroughly with 1/2 cup of Whitney Farms All-Purpose 5-5-5 and 1 tablespoon of Maxicrop Soluble Seaweed Powder. That is the bottom of my transplant. In a separate bucket I mix 1/2 bucket of Sunshine and 1/2 cup of Whitney's (same fertilizers I used in the bottom but without the Seaweed powder). This is the top layer of my transplant. I set a layer (about an inch thick) of the top mix on top of the bottom mix and the set my transplant on top of that. Then I fill in the rest of the pot with the remaining top mix. Water until transplant.
I have had great success with this recipe on a wide variety of strains as well as winning 2 first place Oregon Medical Cannabis Awards using this recipe.
You do not require special equipment or ever need to add any more fertilizer to this recipe.

 

[baccas125]

ya i use promix and add foxfarm piece of mind and some worm castings and greensand when i have it along with added perlite. I fertilize with fish emulsionas and add liquid karma. plane and simple all organic

 

[Stoney Girl]

I just finished testing promix and I won't use it again. Nothing has given me as good results as Sunshine. It's a drag too because Sunshine costs a lot more than promix. But the results are worth the expense.

 

[baccas125]

I can't find sunshine mix here in the midwest it either promix or foxfarm premixed and it way too expensive.

 

[stikky budz]

Hm, in a way you kinda have things backwards. I've grown with both methods and I will tell you the differences I noticed:

- Transplanting
There is no transplanting involved in hydro. The plant stays in its same netpot for the duration. When I grew soil I dreaded transplants. Often done too late, messy, possibly damaging to the plant if you mess up, and overall too much work. Your plants then don't grow for about a week as they get assimilated into their new soil and bucket. Waiting a week to grow = the suck.

- Cleanliness
Soil I always managed to grab some sort of pest. Flies and all types of weird things over time. They all seemed to live in the soil or at least need it. Since switching to hydro I've not once had any living pest in my grow area (despite a brief spider mite incident). There's simply no soil for them so they don't come around. Hydro setups are generally very clean and sanitary.

- Growth
In my experiences with DWC vs soil, DWC seems to grow not only twice as fast, but the plant tends to bush out and have many colas. Soil seemed to promote a single stalk for some reason. My plants will often grow up to 2 inches per day in optimal conditions, and sometimes more during flower stretch. Root growth is phenomenal as well, as the roots are not limited in size or restricted by soil. I love huge white fat hairy roots!

- Watering
Soil: water about once or twice a week with a good soak and drain at the end.
Hydro: no need to remember to water, just keep the damn rez filled! I even get lazy and let mine almost run out. The plants don't seem to be affected.

- Nutes/pH
In soil I never really checked my PH ever...seemed to always be good how it was. I just threw in half strength nutes every few weeks and let em grow. The only thing negative I can say is that there is no way to test your nute strength at any given time in soil, and it is much harder to flush and start anew.
In hydro it takes some practice to get things down, but once you got it your home free. Checking PH and nute strengths is not as hard as some think. Stick the meter in once a day or so, make sure the PH is somewhere between 5 and 6 and the PPMs are reasonable. If not, add PH up or down until its correct, or add nutrients if needed. You mess up and put too much in? Empty the rez and put a fresh clean solution in. Every mistake is easily fixable and there are NO uncertainties as to what is in your rez.

- Root rot
If there is any good reason not to go hydro, this is it. Root rot will destory crop after crop if you let it. Since roots are sitting in a pool of water and not airy soil, they need oxygen or they will down ( like being overwatered ). O2 pump/s are needed. Even if you do have enough oxygen, if your water is too warm it simply will not hold the oxygen and the roots won't get it. If you live in any place where it gets semi-warm ( cali ) you either need a rez cooler or something similar. Hydrogen peroxide, SM90 and frozen water bottles keep me goin through the summer.

- Final product/results
This is a tough one. There are amazing soil growers out there who can do crazy things with precice organic nutrient formulas and strict tried and true methods. These growers can do most anything hydro growers can do and possibly go beyond.
However, most soil growers are not like this. It is somewhat tough to get good yields and exceptional quality out of soil IMO. Hydro seems to just do it by itself. It yields well, and it produces fine lookin buds consistently without much creative thought by the grower.
Many say soil bud tastes and smells better, mainly because of organics. I never used organics in my soil, but I can say that my hydro buds taste just as good...if not better. I noticed them not to be as harsh as soil buds, but again this is from my experiences.


Well, you asked why grow hydro over soil....and those are my reasons

Peace...happy growin with whatever method you use.

.^^^....I couldn't have put it better.

 

[Guest]

I say do both, no space left empty.

 

[baccas125]

Thats the ticket!!!

 

[killabrown420]

I've done both and to tell you the truth both ways are easy. Some of it is experience and that green thumb some people have naturally, but for entirely noobs at plants and such, I would think hydro would be easier...there is a science to it, you can buy all the fancy test pens and stuff and follow feeding charts with nutes so you can't screw up.

I like both about the same, soil seems to take a little more involvement and hands on which I happen to like, so I've been going soil lately. I still have my dwc setup ready to go though whenever I get the urge to switch it up. I like making soil mixes and peaking the plants out, you can airate your soil mixture just as much as your dwc can, I've had similar growth w/ soil and hydro, and transplanting is more of a skill w/ soil as it takes practice and consistency for the plants to not miss a step.

As for taste, never noticed any harshness in anything I've grown except for when there is still a bit of moisture in the buds. A good cure brings out the goodness.

heavy, you got the right idea!

 

[TNTBudSticker]

TNT, do you always flush two weeks? or just when overferted?I have never flushed more than 3 to 5 days, though I am still fairly new to hydro. I was always under assumption there was no flush needed, unless they are overferted......your plants look lovely tho, so I am sure you know your stuff too

Thanks... Toki'n a C99 so it's all good
It was a First time to test out some chili peppers in hydro so i went with some Mj seeds so to speak
The plant was last feed some 10-52-10 ,pk13/14,bugbud
Dr.Horby 0-1-3 ..then with no burns at all...

The flush I thought would be 3-5 days but after those 5 days she was still stacking mini colas on her topbuds..I thought it was the blueberry inside her and let her keep going till she slowed down the stacking mini colas.LifeSaver suppose (F2) to go 42-45 days but this one went 63 days in hydro... 2.8 feet=200 grams wet=80 grams dry... Such a clean fine damn smooth smoke..And you can tell..its hydro

 

[Guest]

yea i tryed to grow strait up soil for my first time without research i just through some seeds in to some dirt and let it go, thos turned ....meh.....the bud wasn't potent at all it was weird as shit
and the smoke was harsh with horrible taste...donno....
but now i got a nice grow cab up its little and it can hold two nice size moms with maybe a small third. i got two 40w long floros in it and 2 45 cfls in domes over the plants. the cab is about, 2.5ft,1.5ft,4ft.
its a nice cab. i like it nice and small and got 2 fans commin out of the top of the cab got the nutes under the cab...i like it and it seems to work...my OHxAK47 mom is quite big...donno how it compairs to norm plants but its been growin 2months bout, too a little while to get started but yea i'll stik in a pic of it and i also got a romberry in there that is the exact same age and is super small it just has primary and secondary leaves and has been like that since it grew the first leaves. kinda odd... what happened was the secondary leaves came and then started going strait up. and then they touched and stayed like that for a long long LONG time....a few weekes ago they decided to go back down and have stayed there for now, and the plant refuses to grow anymore...im thinking about distroying it and starting over..... tell me what youguys think bout this...
umm yea so this cab is my first hydro grow and my ohxak it's main stalk fimed it self it seemed cuz i planed on fimmin it but it ended up spliting into three on its own....kinda cool
so it grew too big to leave how it was, so i LST ed it, and so its got a bunch of branches commin off it...i think its iknda nice....tellme what yo guys thing but if anyone still looks at this thread, tell me something,,, im going to do hydro and then in the extra space do some soil so,,, what would be the best way to start a seed in soil??? just make the soil wet and then stik the seed in it just barely under the soil?? or what?? paper towel and then stick soil??? tell me whats up...
thanks
-SenselessRebel

fucked up romberry



my big baby

 

[Delta9-THC]

I usually grow soil..indoors with HID light or *potted with sunlight ... (*mmmmm my favourite!)

I always enjoy my harvest ,,, and sometimes wondered what hydro would do for it...

you asked why grow hydro over soil... so... well at the mo .... I have 2 in the "new" hydro system and 6 "in plain old" soil (all females!) growing..

well I was very concerned with going hydro ...hearing lots of problems.... especially with my specific system.... but .. I started 3 from seed in the hydro :*~) app.very unusal

..... anyway

imo it seems that the hydro grow almost 2x as fast !!!
with the hydro being as tall as the soil grown in 1 month less time (at least)
also on the Ec/Ph/ppm Q's I havent even checked ppm/Ec once and am having no problems 2 months in ... I only check ph of new nutrient mixes and once in a while through the drip system....

~no negatives~ GO HYDRO

..... hydro will apparently produce 2X as much but still atleast 2 months...lol so I will post again!
Peace

 

[Delta9-THC]

btw "USAL GROW"
"soil" - cheap b&q compost
"light" - 400w hps dualspec
"nutrient" - canna nutes terra (vega/florues)
Veg. for 4 weeks @ 24 on
flower (strain time dependant) @ 12/12
(usually 8-14 weeks)

This time I gave em ... 8 weeks of veg ,,,, the hydro 2 weeks to hopefully minimize stretch!

now Im in the 4th week of flowering so ... I will tell you in about ... 5-9 weeks dry and cured ( lol )
anyway GREAT THREAD
GOOD INFO
PEACE

 

[Guest]

Hydro or Soil

Hydro or Soil

I was just wondering what are the pros and cons of the two? Which do you prefer and why? Also if you could input your prices you pay for one of them.

This would be for a small indoor grow btw.

 

[badmf]

Well I see you didn't want to read up on this yourself. So I will do you a small favor. Soil, of course is cheaper, you might say its "dirt" cheap, lol In soil you can go with 3g pots, a soil formula for DIY, or buy FF's Ocean Forest etc, nutes, and meters and thats about it.
Hydro has more of a hands on feel and although will give quicker and larger yeilds, is more expen$ive (for larger systems) and I would start out with soil as its more forgiving. A mistake in hydro occurs fast and if not corrected quickly will kill plants. To get a feel for hydro look up DWC grows they are the cheapest way to enter that door. You need a bucket, air pump, a couple net pots and some grow rocks plus nutes and meters. They work very well and don't need as much maintainence as Aero, NFT or such. But these are more for a smaller set-up, if you wanted 50 plants it isn't as practical.
With all these for indoors you will need a lite and a couple fans would be good too. These change with the size of the grow.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Badmf for the advice.