Soil vs. Hydro. Soil experts please help!

I hope this turns out for you. So far, no offense intended, I don't see any 'expert' organic growers stepping forward. Maybe they haven't seen the thread yet. I'm using ocean forest and happy frog along with the ff liquid nutes. I do not grow completely organic but I tried this grow to come darn close. As you noted, tiger bloom is not organic.

I'm interested to see how your hydro comes out. Every once in a while I mull over the idea but for now I still get to much enjoyment playing in the dirt. Hope some of the experts help you out, there are some damn knowledgeable people on here.

Heads Up said:

I hope this turns out for you. So far, no offense intended, I don't see any 'expert' organic growers stepping forward. Maybe they haven't seen the thread yet. I'm using ocean forest and happy frog along with the ff liquid nutes. I do not grow completely organic but I tried this grow to come darn close. As you noted, tiger bloom is not organic.

I'm interested to see how your hydro comes out. Every once in a while I mull over the idea but for now I still get to much enjoyment playing in the dirt. Hope some of the experts help you out, there are some damn knowledgeable people on here.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I know they are out there, I just can't seem to get a lot of help. So I'm going to go with "close to organic" like I think 90% of people do and just consider a soil vs. hydro experiment.

I know what hydro can do and I love it, I just don't want to continue doing it for the next 10 years and then finally try soil only to find out I like it better. So no time like the present to make the change.

Since you've been growing hydro and I know next to nothing about it, what are the advantages of hydro over soil? I'm very curious to see the comparison once you start your grow.

Heads Up said:

Since you've been growing hydro and I know next to nothing about it, what are the advantages of hydro over soil? I'm very curious to see the comparison once you start your grow.

Click to expand...

The first advantage I find in hydro is the overall cleanliness of the setup. I had pest problems in soil and in hydro I don't as long as I take a little care. I've also gotten much faster and more vigourous growth from hydro. The plant literally explodes compared to soil, but everyone has always claimed the test difference so I'm going to see. I still don't buy it and I suspect I'll be switching back to all hydro, but I've found that when there are so many differing opinions the only way I can find out for myself is to try it myself.

Exactly, so true about the opinions. You can tell me anything, show me. Like I said, for me I just enjoy playing in the dirt. I don't feel like I need to keep my eye on them so closely in soil...but then why do I always find myself just staring at my girls?

Heads Up said:

Exactly, so true about the opinions. You can tell me anything, show me. Like I said, for me I just enjoy playing in the dirt. I don't feel like I need to keep my eye on them so closely in soil...but then why do I always find myself just staring at my girls?

Click to expand...

Really? I think in soil I'll have to watch much more closely. In I have my meters outside my tent so I can see if I need to open it. Temp, humidity, ppm, ph all sitting outside the tent. Sometimes I don't actually open the thing up for 4-5 days. I walk by and all is well so I just leave it shut. Same even with my veggin' plants, I just look in once in awhile to see if I need to move the light.

Well this is only my third grow and like my golf, it's pretty recreational. Don't get me wrong, I take it seriously, just like my golf and do my best to educate myself. I pretty much try to keep in mind, this is a weed, do not drive yourself crazy over it. My first grow was 12/12 from seed in twenty ounce cups from start to finish. It was hilarious. I did my best to kill them off in various ways but they just wouldn't die. Yield was a joke, a few ounces from like fourteen plants. It was all bagseed but the smoke turned out surprisingly good, even with all my attempts at killing the poor girls. My second grow, I had a huge brainfart week six or so. For some insane reason which I still don't grasp, I decided I was over-watering and proceeded to kill most of them off by under-watering them. I poked them, I prodded them, I nuted them but in the end they died from thirst and heat. They didn't actually die, they were a few steps away from death when I put them out of their misery, and mine. Anyway, this grow I decided I was going to do as little to them as possible and let them do their thing. They have responded quite nicely. I just started my fourth week of flowering and they are still nice and green and healthy, bud production is very nice and other than watering and turning the containers, I use two and three gallon waste paper baskets, I have pretty much left them alone. They have only shed an occasional lower leaf here and there. I've actually been very light on the nutes, always mixing a little less than the directions. I have only given them full strength flowering nutes twice in the past two weeks. I feed them every fifth or sixth day and in between give them molasses and cal-mag plus. If they don't burn within the next day or two I plan on giving them more to see if they can handle it. I want to pack on as much weight as I can over the next few weeks of flowering. I take a little info from here and there and just try different things. I have two more books on the way, need to do some reading about sativa before I start my next grow.

I am a pretty knowledgable organic gardener. I did the whole peat mixed with dry ferts and "cooked" for a healthy soil food web and made teas and I loved it all. However I got to thinking about how annoying dirt was being tracked all over and the wet dry vac I have to use and disposal which I hate because I am lazy and I went back to hydro and had awesome results that made my soil look silly and I know this is not proof of nothing, dont get me wrong I still got a tree in soil, but I have gone back to hydro and ebb and flow and GH hardwater nutes and tapwater and am loving it. IT is a lot more fun I think. More productive and I think these days healthier plants.

tea tree said:

I am a pretty knowledgable organic gardener. I did the whole peat mixed with dry ferts and "cooked" for a healthy soil food web and made teas and I loved it all. However I got to thinking about how annoying dirt was being tracked all over and the wet dry vac I have to use and disposal which I hate because I am lazy and I went back to hydro and had awesome results that made my soil look silly and I know this is not proof of nothing, dont get me wrong I still got a tree in soil, but I have gone back to hydro and ebb and flow and GH hardwater nutes and tapwater and am loving it. IT is a lot more fun I think. More productive and I think these days healthier plants.

Click to expand...

I followed the same path, but I have a couple years more experience now and I want to give soil a fair shake. My first hydro plants didn't look like mine come out now, I think I can improve upon my results I had in soil. And by running them side by side I won't have to risk fucking it ALL up and I'll be able to theoritically taste and smell the difference. I was so enamored with the growth I may have overlooked a quality drop. I mean the quantity jump and the growth rate jump was easy to get excited about, so I'm going to go back and apply my knowledge and see what kind of ass I can kick in soil and see if there's a difference.

Advanced Nutrients organic line is 100% organic

yeah your right it's a bitch,
only cause it doesn't last more than six hours after you make it.
but i've never seen the flavor beat. and it should never stink.
also, ironically that recipe i learned from a guy who uses it in hydro.
i wish i was allowed to post pics, i will when i move in january and wrap my grow up.

if it stinks at all I would like to add it has gone anaerobic and toss it. Keep all your teas well aerated with about 10 watt of air, no airstones, just tubes, and a this is the air to make a great give gallon tea, with a tbsp of molasses added per gallon. Add this to a dilute mix of water or full blast for a real kick. IT will contain signifigant bacteria and myco fungi to reinvigorate your soil as well as a fair mix of NPK depending on your ingreds. Aerobic tea is good, that is the bubbly kind and anaerobic, the stinky shit, is a poison even if it has not killed anything yet. A lot of growers get that wrong. This will help your soil grows out! Use less ferts too. I just read something stank and I was wondering if this was your prob as I forget what thread I am in and know I read a tea prob somewhere! Lol. Also using this on soil you premixed with dry ferts will give you a water only grow with a compost tea to really kick start it. Most soil growers I read of claim the dry fert water only grow is the most killer. I sure got some killer grows for a while.

I'm using soil in my hydro.... how about that. it is hydroponic soil-less mix. its like coco and peat moss and alfaf/fish meals but no dirt or twigs or bark and crap.

tea tree said:

if it stinks at all I would like to add it has gone anaerobic and toss it. Keep all your teas well aerated with about 10 watt of air, no airstones, just tubes, and a this is the air to make a great give gallon tea, with a tbsp of molasses added per gallon. Add this to a dilute mix of water or full blast for a real kick. IT will contain signifigant bacteria and myco fungi to reinvigorate your soil as well as a fair mix of NPK depending on your ingreds. Aerobic tea is good, that is the bubbly kind and anaerobic, the stinky shit, is a poison even if it has not killed anything yet. A lot of growers get that wrong. This will help your soil grows out! Use less ferts too. I just read something stank and I was wondering if this was your prob as I forget what thread I am in and know I read a tea prob somewhere! Lol. Also using this on soil you premixed with dry ferts will give you a water only grow with a compost tea to really kick start it. Most soil growers I read of claim the dry fert water only grow is the most killer. I sure got some killer grows for a while.

Click to expand...

see thats how good weed grown with tea is this guy doesn't even know what thread he's in. hehe, but how come no airstones?

valjean said:

see thats how good weed grown with tea is this guy doesn't even know what thread he's in. hehe, but how come no airstones?

Click to expand...

I promised to post the link when this grow got underway so here it is. I've picked up some supplies, the clones are ready to go and I'm ready to get this thing underway:

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/292671-hydro-advanced-nutrients-vs-soil.html#post3658980