Soil To Hydro? Is It Worth It?

Always used soil and have it pretty much dialed in but its really becoming a pain in the ass to deal with dirt all the time? I guess my question is, is it worth the switch? Gotta small garden. 4-6 plants. 400 watt. And what are some good small setups that are out there?

If you think soil is a pain in the ass hydro is not for you.

i hate soil 2 it sucks all the dirt in the house go with a 2x4 flood and drain set up

They both can be a pain . Hydro is more technical and less forgiving . You got to deal with changing out your rez and all that stuff.
Soil is'nt that bad . My only complaint is watering and catching runoff . Ideally I'd like to have my pots sitting in a flood table then drain to waste. Then all you gotta do is water and dump the runoff no shufflling pots around .

Aslong as you have learned to read your plants with soil . HYdro is the next step faster bigger yields .

DIY a 3 or 5 gallon DWC bucket or two, get a simple 2 part nutrient line, and give it a try. You'll probably like the change the pace and the differences just because it's something new. There are pros and cons to both ways of growing but I wouldn't say either way is amazingly better or worse than the other when it comes to those pros and cons. The learning curve is somewhat forgivable once you see a plant really thrive in a hydro system and start growing faster than you'd think possible...

It's not for everyone, but if you like challenging yourself with learning new things - definitely give it a try at least.

I find Hydro easy for a biginner and I only have to replace 6 Rockwool blocks every grow . I use a closet set up

check my journal, all home made, old pumps from fishtanks and heaters, ebb and flo. never blocks, never had any issues infact, just gotta have more time for nute changes, ph adjustment etc. Honestly though, wish i'd have switched 10 years back, absolutely nothing to be scared of!

Ive had great success w/ both types of grows but hydroponics is way more work than soil in my opinion. If you want something that you dont have to mess w/ all the time then id stay w/ the soil grows

NateDizity1420 said:

Ive had great success w/ both types of grows but hydroponics is way more work than soil in my opinion. If you want something that you dont have to mess w/ all the time then id stay w/ the soil grows

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I agree 100%

Well its not the work that brothers me so much. Its the pain in the ass that dealing with runoff and shit. I think I'm gonna throw something together and give it a shot next run.. thanks guys

Do a hydro vegetable garden as a trial. I used a large folgers container with a 5 inch airstone and air pump to do some tomatoes and so far I like it. I even tried perlite as the medium, but won't again even though its working. This way you don't waste any good MJ seeds, and you can do it in a window of your house, so you don't take up precious grow room real estate.

I don't have a pH pen, or TDS meter, just liquid pH testing. It is a little time consuming to get the water right, but if you have a good pH stable nutrient (I use dyna gro, very stable) then the maintenance between rez changes is minimal or null. If I had a pH pen, it would save me half the time I bet. But all in all I like it. Hopefully I can put a MJ plant in DWC soon enough.

Have been in your exact shoes my friend. I was in soil for four years about every way possible. I HATED dealing with dirt all over the place. Always having to buy more soil. Having to water every other day usually. Dealing with runoff and having to get it out of the room 3-4 times a week. Mixing nutes 3-4 times a week. Also takes a lot more to flush it out properly. Once you get lockup in soil it can be VERY hard and take too long to reverse. I finally switched to ebb and flow a year ago and am kicking myself for not doing this a long long time ago !! VERY easy to setup. No drip lines or hand watering. I change a reservoir once a week but can go 10 days if I want some go a lot longer. I can leave the room to do its thing and go on vacation if I so choose. Leaving it for 1-2 weeks is no big deal. No more messy soil. I use Hydroton and can reuse it over and over and over so no more trips buying heavy bags of soil. Plants NEVER lockup. Plants grow a lot faster and yield more. Its VERY VERY easy dont let anyone scare you about it. Pick the right nutes and you dont even have to use a PH meter or a PPM meter. I used Advanced, House and Garden both I had to deal with a lot of PH issue and constantly adjusting so it was a PITA. I have since switched to a one part GH powder called MAxibloom and Maxigrow. Want t play it 100% safe use 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoon per gallon and forget about it. Drops the PH from 7.4 on my tap to 5.5-5.7 which is perfect. It goes up to 6.3 by the end of week which is still perfect. Never add any PH up or down, never add nutrients , nothing at all to do but watch them grow. I also use and recomend Floralicious Plus. Both are super cheap to boot about half the price and most other formulas out there and they grow VERY VERY well. I cna pull an ounce a plant with only a 5 inch pot switching the plant to 12/12 only 6-8 inches tall filling a tray with 50-60 plants under a light. You could let them get a lot bigger in the same pot too. Have had large mothers in 5 inchers and all my mothers are in 6 inch pots which is about a gallon and they are HUGE giving 20-30 GOOD clones every week each. In soil I always uised atleast a 3 gallon for mothers and always had issues with them locking up over time not growing fast enough etc.

highly recomend the hydro route !!

fyi you can actually buy a good reliable PPM meter on Ebay for $18 shipped made by HM. Its a dark blue one and easy to find. Works as good and accurate as my $100 pen. 3 months old and it is still dead nuts accurate. You can also get a decent digital PH pen for $20 shipped and I found a good waterproof one for $40 shipped. PM me if you need help finding these.

Hey d sorry for not responding I just noticed your post. So you def went through the same shit I'm dealing with then. And the ebb and flow is exactly the way I was thinking about going. I'm gonna put a journal together when I get everything running. Should be interesting. Thanks for the encouragement man. My mind is made up!!!

Is def worth it! Changing res takes me about 1 hour, and I do it once a week. That's it. dlively11 said it well.

I'll let the picture speak for itself.... very little maintenance, easy res swaps...