HELP! hydro or soil?

Hey! I'm about to start my first grow in a few months. It will be indoor and I plan on doing it right. Proper lighting, good nutrients ect. but I'm not sure if I should use soil or a hydro system. I know soil is more forgiving and considering that it will be my first grow I'm leaning towards soil but during the grow i will be out of town from monday to thursday so the ability to regulate waterings and feedings makes hydro seem like a better idea. Can I pull off a soil grow while being out of state for four days or should i use a hydro system.
Also, I'll prolly growing 5 or 6 plants of white widow and 5 or 6 plants of northern lights. If anyone can let me know how often these girls like to drink, how forgiving they are and if they're pretty sensitive to nutes or not.
Finally, if you could leave me a link for a video or good article about soil or hydro that be really cool. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about growing and frankly am kinda lost :/
Thanks in advance for the responses

try checking this vid I would use 6 inch square pots tho!!!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn5urDG2WtE

i also use a medium of mostly pumice or perlite good drainage a must!!!

hydro is much more forgiving to me but then again i have never grown in soil so i will prably will never know how forgiving it is i have about 35 plants on hand right now and have three ebb trays running them all(one in veg two in flower) and i can tell you right now i would have no problem going out of town for a week with no problems i would just do a res change fresh nutes and water and be done. if you have your setup dialed in it can be very forgiving.

I guess for a new grower, soil is simply easier. I started in soil and switched over to Hempy a couple years ago. Hempy is sometimes called the poor man's hydro because it is soil less and can be done on the cheap. Things can go from marginal to dead quickly in a hydro system. It takes longer to kill a plant in soil I think. You can easily go a week between feedings/watering with the right combination of soil mix and container size with good drainage. Best of luck.

Little Tommy said:

I guess for a new grower, soil is simply easier. I started in soil and switched over to Hempy a couple years ago. Hempy is sometimes called the poor man's hydro because it is soil less and can be done on the cheap. Things can go from marginal to dead quickly in a hydro system. It takes longer to kill a plant in soil I think. You can easily go a week between feedings/watering with the right combination of soil mix and container size with good drainage. Best of luck.

Click to expand...

agreed i started in soil and still using it, not saying im never goin hydro but for now im content. hydro is a whole differant ball game lot more shit can go wrong

I mix my nutes once a week and dump them into my hempy bucket. Just follow the directions on the bottles and it works like a charm.

I'm definitely thinking hydro now. I have a question though, what is Hempy? can you send me a link or describe it yourself?
also, would a 400w hps be enough for ten plants?

blaze831 said:

try checking this vid I would use 6 inch square pots tho!!!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn5urDG2WtE

Click to expand...

Thanks, Blaze! video was helpful! rep coming your way

drgreentm said:

hydro is much more forgiving to me but then again i have never grown in soil so i will prably will never know how forgiving it is i have about 35 plants on hand right now and have three ebb trays running them all(one in veg two in flower) and i can tell you right now i would have no problem going out of town for a week with no problems i would just do a res change fresh nutes and water and be done. if you have your setup dialed in it can be very forgiving.

Click to expand...

Your set up sounds perfect for me.
Can you give me more details about it?
how to build it ect.?

Hydro all the way. I went from years of soil growing and did very well, then went to my first hydro setup, totally experimented (with lots of research though) but I ended up getting well over two pounds per 1000 w bulb of strictly triple A tops. The colas were about 3 feet tall, packed "sea of green" style, and were budly from the rockwool, straight to the top with massive side devilfork buds..
And I actually kinda overdried my first hydro batch. I had so much frigging weed, I was forced to crop early because of plants falling over from weight. One plant fell over, then I tied it up as best as possible, but then another then another, then one morning I came in my room and ever single one of my 179 plants was layed over. I already started my flush with water a week or so earlier, so I just gave it two more days then snipped them all. Pulled 16+ lbs from 8 1000w dual spectrum HPS with GroStar reflectors, over top of 4 4x8 flood tables.

Long story short, my production rate increased significantly and, once dialed in, was so much easier and cleaner. If you live in a bad locale, trying to bring giant bags of soilless mix in every month or two without raising eyebrows can be a challenge.


I swore by soil for years, and had great results, but I will never go back. Maybe for a small cabinet grow, or medium sized closet, but never for larger setups.

Just my opinion

If I were you try both. Thats what I am going to do on my next grow. I think they both have their advantages and dis-advantages. Its all about personal preference and what you can handle and are comfortable with. Dont forget there are some strains out there that are better in hydro then soil and vice versa. If you do one hydro and one soil try to make sure they are clones from the same mother plant or the same strain seed so you can really see which one you like better. Right now I am growing in Soil cause I thought it would be easier but next grow I will be doing a test of a side by side Hydro and Soil grow. Should be fun. Just keep in mind its all about personal preference but you should try both. Peace

BKB

If you are gonna be gone for 4 days at a time then you will be pretty much relegated to doing soil only, unless you spend beaucoup bucks on a PH controller. Hydro absolutely DEMANDS regular PH checks and regulation. PH can vary out of range SEVERELY in just a day or 2. In 4 days you might come back to completely dead plants. If you can afford the controller, then go for hydro, its a much faster way to grow.

NoDrama said:

If you are gonna be gone for 4 days at a time then you will be pretty much relegated to doing soil only, unless you spend beaucoup bucks on a PH controller. Hydro absolutely DEMANDS regular PH checks and regulation. PH can vary out of range SEVERELY in just a day or 2. In 4 days you might come back to completely dead plants. If you can afford the controller, then go for hydro, its a much faster way to grow.

Click to expand...

True true. I never was gone for longer than a day running hydro so I never thought to mention that downside.

On the same note, I have had soil grows where I left for a couple days and came back to severely stressed, but not quite dead plants. They decided to be extremely thirsty and the pots were REAL lite after that. Another day would have killed them for sure. So it can happen with either.

But yes, a very important downfall of hydro, and aeroponic grows.

Never done aeroponics but I heard a matter of 24 hours or less can destroy things. Don't know how true that is.

Edit....your avatar is hilarious. LMAO

CAMisTUFF said:

Your set up sounds perfect for me.
Can you give me more details about it?
how to build it ect.?

Click to expand...

sure i can do that. on my signature is my grow thread you can check that out and if you have any ?'s you can just hit me up on my thread and i would be happy to answer all of them for you.

There is a thread called "The hempy collective revised." That is how I got started with hempy. Good info in that thread.

soil is easier to grow in and alot more forgiving.

NoDrama said:

If you are gonna be gone for 4 days at a time then you will be pretty much relegated to doing soil only, unless you spend beaucoup bucks on a PH controller. Hydro absolutely DEMANDS regular PH checks and regulation. PH can vary out of range SEVERELY in just a day or 2. In 4 days you might come back to completely dead plants. If you can afford the controller, then go for hydro, its a much faster way to grow.

Click to expand...

I think I might wanna check out these ph controllers. I'm doing this with my friend that I live with and our job requires us to be out of town for four days every week so I thin between the two of us we can scrounge up some cash for it. It definitely sounds worth it.
How much do they usually cost?