Ask Us Anything: Sharing Knowledge 420 Style

[BEEEEEF]

Hydro vs soil whats the best route

Depends where and how long your grow cycles are.

I personally feel coco coir or soiless mixtures superior for indoors on 14 week schedules for many reasons. As I've seen with a plant grown for 7 months, alot of problems arise.

Soil for me, = more variables. Harder to flush, brings in bugs and bacteria, plus you don't know exact what nutrients are in the soil or how it interacts with your nutrients.

Just my thoughts after my first grow.

 

[LedGuy74]

Hydro vs soil whats the best route

Do you want to take care of your plants every day or every 4-7 days? That's all it comes down to the only time I interact with my plants is around once a week when they need water. People with hydro need to feed every day and check res levels ect... Hydro does grow larger at a quicker rate though so that's a bonus ontop of potentially finishing flowering a week or so earlier. You could go the coco route if you want a best of both worlds scenario. Coco needs waterings often usually much more often than soil but it's a popular medium to grow in its nice and aerated and plants grow great in it.. I personally use fox farms products they sell coco and soil... I like both I usually buy the fox farms happy frog sometimes the ocean forest but it's a bit hot... The fox farms coco is good stuff too and already completely loaded with perlite and a perfect consistency. I personally mix the coco with the soil though maybe one day I'll do a solid coco run but it's just not ideal for me currently.

 

[Planter420]

There are pros and cons to both methods. But who does t want to spend time with their cannabis plants? I only have to worry about the res once a week but I open my cab multiple times a day to lst, defoliate, tuck leaves, smell the flowers, etc.

 

[ckridaa]

Thanks guys im in my first soil grow so think I'll try Hydro next

 

[ckridaa]

Any recommendations on 1000watt led

 

[SwAggNiFiCeNt]

Any recommendations on 1000watt led

Really depends on ur budget.

 

[GodOfPot]

Hydro vs soil whats the best route

Best in terms of what? "Best" is different for everyone, to some people best is easiest, to others best is the taste or aroma, to me best is a combination of a multitude of different things with potency being #1 & the final product itself....to me the best would hands down be soil, but that's not to say anything bad about hydro, obviously it exists in conversation because it is the "best" for some.

Any recommendations on 1000watt led

Piece of good advice, instead of searching the 1000w led, figure out your grow space and figure out a way to optimize the lighting within it so that the entire area gets equal lighting...generally this is going to mean either a custom or DIY COB set up or quantum boards, or using more than 1 unit with a lower draw so that you may spread the light out better so it's not all confined to one general area

I've yet to see a single LED unit that will give you "optimal" lighting on a 4' surface...the units just aren't large enough in size to have the light come from a high enough angle...if it's only a 2' area you're talking about then there's lots of LEDs out there that will give great coverage...again it all depends on the size of area you're talking about.

 

[Ripples]

Let me start by saying this thread is fantastic! Very informative... My question: Growing in a ProMix HP with Mycorrhizae. When mixing nutes do I mix as a "Soil" base or "Hydro"? This also involves where to run my PH? Been using as soilless; feeding as "Hydro"... Doing well but never certain I'm doing this correct? Thanks in advance! Going to enjoy reading more post here...

 

[GodOfPot]

It would be soilless, so you're correct on feeding its PH based on a hydro set up

 

[Slowpuffer]

Let me start by saying this thread is fantastic! Very informative... My question: Growing in a ProMix HP with Mycorrhizae. When mixing nutes do I mix as a "Soil" base or "Hydro"? This also involves where to run my PH? Been using as soilless; feeding as "Hydro"... Doing well but never certain I'm doing this correct? Thanks in advance! Going to enjoy reading more post here...

Once upon a time, I used Promix hp, and I used ph for soil & was feed ing with soil nutrients. (FF) But I tried to keep ph on the low side of the recommended ph for soil, about 6.2-6.3. I found promix to dense to grow anything hydroponically, even mixed with 40% perlite. I was treating it like soil grow. Worked for me, but nothing has ever gave me the yield of pure coco. It's what I use now & have no plans of going back to soilless mixes.

 

[GodOfPot]

Isn't coco considered a soilless mix?

 

[SwAggNiFiCeNt]

Isn't coco considered a soilless mix?

As far as I know

 

[TheMadDabber]

Isn't coco considered a soilless mix?

As far as I know

Yes.....

It is an inert medium. Which means it has ZERO nutrients and is therefore also soilless

 

[Cultivator]

Hydro vs soil whats the best route

Ok this age old question....


Hydroponic is far superior to soil in everyway. Hydro includes coco coir and any other inert media. Let me clarify why....

You are creating an environment that is exactly specific to your plants needs. Anyone who grows hydroponically will rarely go back to soil but soil growers can get quite upset at the fact hydro is more efficient and effective and done correctly quality is far superior to 99% of soil grows.

More air in root zone provides much stronger plants that means they can take more nutrient onboard and produce heavier denser buds faster.

Its cleaner with less likely hood of pests when keeping ckean grow spaces.

Its very simple and what you give is what the plants recieve.

In terms of yields, speed of growth and quality hydro wins hands down.

People think hydro is complicated, i guess it can be if you over complicate things just like anything. But as long as you understand PH and EC/ppm you cant really go wrong in the simplest hydro set ups like hand fed coco coir. Remember you still need to understand these values to grow well in soil also.

Its true coco and hydro mediums need fed daily or multiple times daily and when manual feeding this can be labour intensive but its simple to add a drip system to do the work for you, set up in minutes and placed on a timer. Then if you want you could go to your grow once a week and it will look after itself. However most growers are in there grows daiky anyway.

Soil is cheaper to set up sure. And supersoils are great, im not saying soil is a complete waste of time, if you take time to use quality soil specific to marijuana you can have awesome grows.


There are people who get fabulous results in soil. But you can not deny the efficiency and growth rates of hydro. It takes practice but so does growing in soil.

I think if the question is which is better gor producing yield, quality and growth rates you cant argue soil is better. You have to have experience of both to have a true balanced opinion also. Its no good only growing hydro and never in soil and saying its better cos thats how you do it or vice versa. Its been a long time since ive grown in soil, years now and thats because i see no real benefit to it when hydro mediums arw so simple to access now.

Remember you can grow complete organic weed in hydro also, it doesnt mean chemicals and poisoning the environment. Even non organic feeds are high quality these days.

Anyway im rambling but coco would be a good step for anyone diving into hydro from soil or starting out growing. Check out my coco thread and my journals for any info on growing in this medium.

At the end of the day its all personal preference and just do what you want. Good luck with what ever you choose.

 

[Potplant]

Hey guys

I'm new here and wanted some help and advice. I have 6 plants that I'm growing outdoors, in pot plants that are about 20-25cm high and about the same on the top. If I need to take pics of the pots then il take it and upload it. Now I want to know, which ones are male and which are female. From the looks of it all look like females and number 6 is still too small to check. Number 6 and 5 were planted 2 weeks after the others. Is it OK if I put 1 to 4 in the flowering stage now? Sunrise is at 5:20am and sunset at 7:03. I plan on putting a black packet or a cardboard box around them from 10pm till 10am. Is that OK?

 

[Planter420]

Those are petioles and they don't indicate sex yet. When you flip them, they will show sex a week or so after. When the nodes alternate instead of staying symmetrical it's in the window for transition to flower. I'd wait until then.

 

[ckridaa]

Ok this age old question....


Hydroponic is far superior to soil in everyway. Hydro includes coco coir and any other inert media. Let me clarify why....

You are creating an environment that is exactly specific to your plants needs. Anyone who grows hydroponically will rarely go back to soil but soil growers can get quite upset at the fact hydro is more efficient and effective and done correctly quality is far superior to 99% of soil grows.

More air in root zone provides much stronger plants that means they can take more nutrient onboard and produce heavier denser buds faster.

Its cleaner with less likely hood of pests when keeping ckean grow spaces.

Its very simple and what you give is what the plants recieve.

In terms of yields, speed of growth and quality hydro wins hands down.

People think hydro is complicated, i guess it can be if you over complicate things just like anything. But as long as you understand PH and EC/ppm you cant really go wrong in the simplest hydro set ups like hand fed coco coir. Remember you still need to understand these values to grow well in soil also.

Its true coco and hydro mediums need fed daily or multiple times daily and when manual feeding this can be labour intensive but its simple to add a drip system to do the work for you, set up in minutes and placed on a timer. Then if you want you could go to your grow once a week and it will look after itself. However most growers are in there grows daiky anyway.

Soil is cheaper to set up sure. And supersoils are great, im not saying soil is a complete waste of time, if you take time to use quality soil specific to marijuana you can have awesome grows.


There are people who get fabulous results in soil. But you can not deny the efficiency and growth rates of hydro. It takes practice but so does growing in soil.

I think if the question is which is better gor producing yield, quality and growth rates you cant argue soil is better. You have to have experience of both to have a true balanced opinion also. Its no good only growing hydro and never in soil and saying its better cos thats how you do it or vice versa. Its been a long time since ive grown in soil, years now and thats because i see no real benefit to it when hydro mediums arw so simple to access now.

Remember you can grow complete organic weed in hydro also, it doesnt mean chemicals and poisoning the environment. Even non organic feeds are high quality these days.

Anyway im rambling but coco would be a good step for anyone diving into hydro from soil or starting out growing. Check out my coco thread and my journals for any info on growing in this medium.

At the end of the day its all personal preference and just do what you want. Good luck with what ever you choose.

Wow brother thank you for taking the time out and breaking it down for me you have a very good opinion on what's going on and how to do it properly this is my first grow and I'm in soil as of right now I'm thinking very highly for the next grow to go Hydro again thank you for taking time out of your day for a helping hand.

 

[Potplant]

Those are petioles and they don’t indicate sex yet. When you flip them, they will show sex a week or so after. When the nodes alternate instead of staying symmetrical it’s in the window for transition to flower. I’d wait until then.

Are you referring to my pics? If so, thank you for that. Do you suggest I start the flowering stage now?

 

[Planter420]

I would wait until you have alternating nodes or you'll sacrifice a little in total plant size but you can flip whenever you want. It's just better when they're mature to the point the node go back and forth like this:

Kinda hard to see but when the nodes start to resemble a spiral staircase or at least alternating you know she's ready

 

[MotaFina]

Are you referring to my pics? If so, thank you for that. Do you suggest I start the flowering stage now?

Your 10 PM - 10 AM schedule seems off. The plants will only get 9 hours of sunlight (10 AM until 7:03 PM). Maybe try 7 PM - 7 AM?