HYDRO vs. SOIL

UPfreebird

UPfreebird

Member
I'm a noob.

Michigan passed it's MMJ Laws!! Yay! I have a card that says I can grow. So if Michigan is giving me permission to grow marijuana,...you can bet that I am going to grow the best.

Right now I have a small soil operation inside my house, but when the snow melts I am building a fantastic grow shed.

My question is,...which yeilds better results,....soil or hydro. Since I am building the grow room from scratch, I can design it to what I want it to be.

So I am just curious as to which one is the better of the two.

And remember,...I have no green thumb,....yet.
 
CLOSETGROWTH

CLOSETGROWTH

Well-Known Member
UPfreebird said:
I'm a noob.

Michigan passed it's MMJ Laws!! Yay! I have a card that says I can grow. So if Michigan is giving me permission to grow marijuana,...you can bet that I am going to grow the best.

Right now I have a small soil operation inside my house, but when the snow melts I am building a fantastic grow shed.

My question is,...which yeilds better results,....soil or hydro. Since I am building the grow room from scratch, I can design it to what I want it to be.

So I am just curious as to which one is the better of the two.

And remember,...I have no green thumb,....yet.
Click to expand...
The difference is like night and day.

You can literally see em' grow right in front of you in hydro.

Click on the link near my sig :)

Im doing a grip of dwc Bubbler Buckets.

I will never grow in soil again. :weed:
 
laserbrn

laserbrn

Well-Known Member
CLOSETGROWTH said:
The difference is like night and day.

You can literally see em' grow right in front of you in hydro.

Click on the link near my sig :)

Im doing a grip of dwc Bubbler Buckets.

I will never grow in soil again. :weed:
Click to expand...
If you check out my sig I'm doing a side by side comparison grow that is just starting. But the basic gist is that Hydro grows faster and more vigourous and ultimately yields a higher quantity over time, but soil has the hands down best taste. That's the gist, I'm growing them side by side to find out how big the growth difference is and how big the taste difference is.

I've grown in both in the past and became a hydro kinda guy and have only done hydro repeatedly for years and decided to try soil again with much more knowledge and experience to run with.

Try a little of both and see which one you like better, how will you know if you don't? Because of what people online tell you? Do a simple grow with a DWC little bubbler and a pot of soil and do'em both.
 
bigdb

bigdb

Well-Known Member
UPfreebird said:
I'm a noob.

Michigan passed it's MMJ Laws!! Yay! I have a card that says I can grow. So if Michigan is giving me permission to grow marijuana,...you can bet that I am going to grow the best.

Right now I have a small soil operation inside my house, but when the snow melts I am building a fantastic grow shed.

My question is,...which yeilds better results,....soil or hydro. Since I am building the grow room from scratch, I can design it to what I want it to be.

So I am just curious as to which one is the better of the two.

And remember,...I have no green thumb,....yet.
Click to expand...
As for plants growing in front of your eyes it has been nothing for me to go to bed for 8-10 hours (depending on how much i smoked of course lol) and woke up and checked my ladies and they have grown by 2-3 inches. it is incredible how quickly they grow in hydro
 
CLOSETGROWTH

CLOSETGROWTH

Well-Known Member
laserbrn said:
If you check out my sig I'm doing a side by side comparison grow that is just starting. But the basic gist is that Hydro grows faster and more vigourous and ultimately yields a higher quantity over time, but soil has the hands down best taste. That's the gist, I'm growing them side by side to find out how big the growth difference is and how big the taste difference is.

I've grown in both in the past and became a hydro kinda guy and have only done hydro repeatedly for years and decided to try soil again with much more knowledge and experience to run with.

Try a little of both and see which one you like better, how will you know if you don't? Because of what people online tell you? Do a simple grow with a DWC little bubbler and a pot of soil and do'em both.
Click to expand...

Thats exactly what Im doing right now :)

Iam growing in soil and in Hydro.

The winner is hydro hands down.

I find that interesting about what you said about taste.. hmmmmm
 
CLOSETGROWTH

CLOSETGROWTH

Well-Known Member
bigdb said:
As for plants growing in front of your eyes it has been nothing for me to go to bed for 8-10 hours (depending on how much i smoked of course lol) and woke up and checked my ladies and they have grown by 2-3 inches. it is incredible how quickly they grow in hydro
Click to expand...
Word up brother :hump:
 
edcocks

edcocks

Well-Known Member
Ask yourself this- How much time and money do I want to spend on this project? If you have alot of time/money go hydro. If you don't then go soil and grow a few more plants to make up for the decreased yeild. I have done both and went to soil because it is so much easier. With hydro you have to keep a close eye on your system regularly. You can water and forget for a few days with soil provided your grow area is set up right.
 
captiankush

captiankush

Well-Known Member
Like many others, once I went hydro soil was out of the question. I still raise mamas in soil, my outdoor girls are too, but all my indoor girls are hydro. Hydro is faster, I get more control over the nutrition of the plants and honestly, its just all around simpler for me. I maintain my buckets once a week by changing the nutes and cleaning my res'. Really no big deal.

Hydro FTW!

CK
 
bigdb

bigdb

Well-Known Member
UPfreebird said:
I'm a noob.

Michigan passed it's MMJ Laws!! Yay! I have a card that says I can grow. So if Michigan is giving me permission to grow marijuana,...you can bet that I am going to grow the best.

Right now I have a small soil operation inside my house, but when the snow melts I am building a fantastic grow shed.

My question is,...which yeilds better results,....soil or hydro. Since I am building the grow room from scratch, I can design it to what I want it to be.

So I am just curious as to which one is the better of the two.

And remember,...I have no green thumb,....yet.
Click to expand...
I defiantly dont have a side by side of soil vs hydro but here are my plants at 3 weeks and 2 days of flower.
 

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captiankush

captiankush

Well-Known Member
edcocks said:
Ask yourself this- How much time and money do I want to spend on this project? If you have alot of time/money go hydro. If you don't then go soil and grow a few more plants to make up for the decreased yeild..
Click to expand...
I can set up a 6 plant hydro op for about $700, including nutes, lights, fans, etc. 6 hydro plants will yield (on the conservative side) 2 oz per plant, which computes to 12 ounces, dried. Thats not bad for 2 weeks veg + 60 days flower + 2-4 weeks dry/cure. I can easlity get 3 harvests in a year, not to mention if I cut on my hydro girls in veg for outdoor clones.

Now, if you take a soil grow, your lights, fans, tent, etc are gonna be the same.

The main difference will be the media.

Here is the cost of a single 3 gal dwc setup:

3 gal black bucket with net pot lid :10
air stone: 1.95
air pump: 15
air line : 1.50 (6 feet)
Hydroton: 20
Even if you round up, lets say it costs $60

Heres soil:

1 10 gal pot: 2.00
1 bag of FFOF : 19.00
1 bag of bio canna: 20.00


( i use 50/50 biocanna to FFOF for soil)


The hydro girls will yield more, and it will be more potent. Also, the net pots hydroton, airstones can all bbe used again, where as soil will have to be replaced.

My .02

CK
 
CLOSETGROWTH

CLOSETGROWTH

Well-Known Member
captiankush said:
I can set up a 6 plant hydro op for about $700, including nutes, lights, fans, etc. 6 hydro plants will yield (on the conservative side) 2 oz per plant, which computes to 12 ounces, dried. Thats not bad for 2 weeks veg + 60 days flower + 2-4 weeks dry/cure. I can easlity get 3 harvests in a year, not to mention if I cut on my hydro girls in veg for outdoor clones.

Now, if you take a soil grow, your lights, fans, tent, etc are gonna be the same.

The main difference will be the media.

Here is the cost of a single 3 gal dwc setup:

3 gal black bucket with net pot lid :10
air stone: 1.95
air pump: 15
air line : 1.50 (6 feet)
Hydroton: 20
Even if you round up, lets say it costs $60

Heres soil:

1 10 gal pot: 2.00
1 bag of FFOF : 19.00
1 bag of bio canna: 20.00


( i use 50/50 biocanna to FFOF for soil)


The hydro girls will yield more, and it will be more potent. Also, the net pots hydroton, airstones can all bbe used again, where as soil will have to be replaced.

My .02

CK
Click to expand...
true dat :)

I hate the fuss and muss with soil. Id rather spend the money on Hydro nutes, than on soil any day. And my house stays nice and clean... :)
 
laserbrn

laserbrn

Well-Known Member
captiankush said:
)

The hydro girls will yield more, and it will be more potent. Also, the net pots hydroton, airstones can all bbe used again, where as soil will have to be replaced.

My .02

CK
Click to expand...
You can make up for the difference in yield by adding more plants and there is no evidence to support hydro plants being more potent than soil plants. I'm a hydro grower and I know they grow more vigorously, but the taste difference may be very substantial. The jury's out right now for me.
 
captiankush

captiankush

Well-Known Member
laserbrn said:
You can make up for the difference in yield by adding more plants
Click to expand...
If your growing in a finite space, this is not correct since the pots and buckets take up nearly the same footprint.

laserbrn said:
and there is no evidence to support hydro plants being more potent than soil plants.
Click to expand...
I disagree. I have grown the same strains, from the same mom in the same environment, even used the same nutes (FF) and I will tell you, hands down, my hydro was more potent. The only variable was what it was grown in. I have a whole bunch of ideas of the WHY of this but thats another topic in and of itself.

laserbrn said:
I'm a hydro grower and I know they grow more vigorously, but the taste difference may be very substantial. The jury's out right now for me.
Click to expand...
I found my hydro to also be sweeter and better tasting. The DQ from my last run is some of the sweetestt smoke I have ever had.

It all comes down to nutrition, the right nutes, at the right time in copious amounts + tons of light + tons of air - inconsistancies = a better smoking experience.

Again, my .02

CK
 
UPfreebird

UPfreebird

Member
Seems like Hydro is the clear winner.

Time to shift my gears into thinking hydro then.
Gotta read up on that.
Yay, new bathroom reading material!
 
mr.smileyface

mr.smileyface

Well-Known Member
SOil is OLDSCHOOl lol. But it works. Before you spend all the money to get hydro i think you should start in a soilless mix. Its basicly hydro. Its a Passive system. WHy kind of hydro system are you getting drawn to.
 
UPfreebird

UPfreebird

Member
mr.smileyface said:
SOil is OLDSCHOOl lol. But it works. Before you spend all the money to get hydro i think you should start in a soilless mix. Its basicly hydro. Its a Passive system. WHy kind of hydro system are you getting drawn to.
Click to expand...

I am not sure what kind of hydro system. I guess I didn't even realize there were many different types of hydro. I want to build a hydro unit that will flower 24 plants or maybe 36 plants.
So I am thinking I will need a nutrient rich trough of some sort under all the plants.

Any nutrient suggestions,...or any "must have" nutrients that I should be looking for? I am looking to grow the kind of buds that I have only seen in pictures and magazines.
 
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