First Attempt: Hydro or Soil?

[CR-PuffnStuff]

I would like to try and grow just enough bud for personal use, and for medical reasons. I smoked for thirty years, but having moved to another state found myself without any connections and at my age wasn’t about to start asking around. Plus, it sure has gotten expensive! It’s been several years!
I am thinking of using one of those resin storage sheds, like those made by Rubbermaid. Apr. 4’W x 6’H x 3’D. It would be in my bedroom, and stealthy, as I live in an apartment building. 400W switchable HPS and MH with a sealed air-cooled reflector. Circulating and exhaust fans. I know that hydroponics is the way to go, but it does look a bit risky for a first timer. I will have so many other things to master first. Is it as hard as it looks, or is it doable for a newbee? How much does it speed things up? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, how many plants could this set up accommodate?

[hexter19]

I went through the same dilema when I decided to give it a try. I went twith soil for now because they say it is easier. With hydro you can make quick changes and see results to the changes faster if things are going wrong. On the other hand if things are going wrong they go wrong much faster as well.

With soil things move a bit slower and you have a bit of time to breath and diagnose things, and ask questions. And thanks to GC for being here because I have made a ton of mistakes and have had problems and these guys have really helped me out, even with really stupid stuff that were no brainers that I should have been able to figure out on my own!

[Anony]

If you do enough research, and have resources for products, anything is possible. However, I would recommend soil for a noob so you can learn about the plant, and its basics, once you have that down, you can move onto more advanced growing setups.

[Kikkoman]

I would also go soil for your first grow, then move up to hydro if you feel like it. Although some people swear by soil (better taste, easyer). Especially if you just using it for personal use soil is perfect.

for noobs, hydro is just an expensive way to kill your plants

[Revolution]

Hydro will cost you more than soil will. I'd stick with soil for a first grow just to see how good things go.

[IMgreen]

I'd also say for your first time do soil, but hydro is not as complicated or expensive as you might think

am doing my first hydro grow now (did soil for all my other grows) and my rig prolly cost about $100 to build (if that)

30 for a nice heavy duty bin for a res, 12 for a root zone bin, $15 for a 400 GPH pump and lines and fittings prolly cost $40 (and I have all kindsa spare fittings left over)

will always have plants in soil for moms and such, but for my personal use production the hydro was so worth it

stayed away from hydro for a long time cuz I didn't know how I was gonna dump a res, but it turns out you don't HAVE to dump and flush unless something goes wrong following the lucas formula for feeding and I also incorporated a bio matrix into the system (a bunch of lavarock, it is supposed to harbor beneficial bacteria to keep fungus and algae in check)

my plants are lovin life and I have had the same nutes in it for 8 weeks
(at 4 weeks 12/12 right now)

good luck man!

get a ph meter and some up & down, biggest mistake I made when first starting was thinking "I don't need that shit" a few months later when my plants got all fucked up, it turned out they were experiencing deficiencies due to ph lockout and here's me adding WAY to much food to fix a problem, but that only made things worse...

true genius is learning from the mistakes of others my friend and trust me, I have fucked up MJ in pretty much every fashion you can think of..

[motorheed]

yep soil mate

[The Grim Reefer]

Just started my own first grow, decided on soil aswell, am switching to hydro for the next grow (bubble buckets via rumpleforeskins thread in the general indoor growing forum, the amount you learn during 1 grow is quite substantial (i read alot too lol) and will set u up for the pitfalls of growing (or so i think )