I am pondering doing a hydro grow... probably bubble buckets.. I have soil now and love the quality of the bud. If I go to bubble buckets, will that lose some of the quality? I have been told that soil is the best bud and hydro is to artificial. Can you guys help me out.. will hydro still be that 10 out of 10 weed???
I'm a dirt farmer, never done hydro, but I've seen lots..... There's always gonna be a debate on this. But the way I see it is:........... Hydro is great for rapid growth, there's nothing better, and will give you some amazing buds. Also you know exactly what you're giving your plants. The down side of hydro is screwing around with ph's, res changes, and power outages, alge and molds, and in my opinion a harsher taste. Soil is easy, get a good soil with lime in it and you don't have to use ph up & down, the lime in the soil acts as a buffer. So you don't get ph fluctuations. And grows tastier buds (imo) Sorry if this is long winded....lol, just hit the bong. But yea, you can grow some massive buds with hydro, but might be a little harsher than in soil. Just give 'em a longer cure.
Hydro for yeilds and taste if u learn to flush right but in my opinon nothing taste liek a good ol organic grown nug
thanks for the advise.. so hydro might be harder to maintain huh. I hear that you need to check the ph often but I haven't heard if its a major issue or not. Wouldn't they flush the same way as soil? just give em water for the last week before cutting.. it would be nice to give them that soil taste but hydro yield huh.. would the nuts help with the taste??
Hydro all the way. I started growing with soil and i can tell you, what a pain in the twat. You are always guessing. When should i water, have i watered too much, when and how much ferterliser should i use and it goes on and on. Indoor Canabis cultivation has come along way in the last 20 years with soil a thing of the past. Hydroponics allows the grower to know exactly how the plants are feeling. I guess it come down to the grower. You can be lucky and produce a bumper crop using soil but you can take my word, when you navigate around this site , you will come across countless threads with titles like- Whats wrong with my plants, have i over watered, the leaves are shrivling, help the leaves are going yellow, my plant is drooping and hasnt grown for weeks, etc,etc. You have to ask yourself "what kind of a grower am i". Hydroponics, yes is finnicy but it allows you to know exactly where your plants are at. For me, i am the type of person that likes checking, monitoring, making up solutions, measuring out stuff, etc, etc. My favorite time is straight after a light cycle so i can get in there and check how much nutrient soluion they took up and where the conductivity and ph is at. I feel that hydroponic growing provides the grower and his plants a more intimate bond as silly as it sounds but it is true. If you do decide to go with it, dont waste your time with bubble buckets/dwc, use a recirculting system which will rule out large, expensive fortnightly dumps. Also, hydro will move things along way quicker than soil One last thing. You were concerned about taste. Hydroponics is actually easier to flush at the end of your grow. As far as the nutrients are concerned, they are all trace elements taken from the earth and not artificial. Dont look now, but probably half the fruits/veggies that you are eating right now have been grown this way. Check out my active grow using NFT hydroponics http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-g...film-technique-closet-grow-2.html#post7326289 What ever method you use- good luck
Oh, i forgot to mention. Many people will say that if you use hydroponics, you have to keep the ph exact. That is the biggest myth of them all. It is beneficial to the plants for the ph to fluctuate between the allowable parameters. This in turn allows the plants to get a broader spectrum of trace alements available which will benefit your plant rather than having the ph locked on a given figure. Good luck!!!!!!!!!
Having done both quite extensively over the decades, I say this: Outdoors - Soil all the way (yes you CAN do hydro outside) Indoors - Hydro all the way. Lower chance of pests, less growing medium required, and the plants will be just as good (if not better). EDIT: Very true. I don't bother a whole lot worrying about the pH of my nutes/water when I tend my plants.
Just stating my opion on this..... Well the only reason ppl ask those questions is just outta being a noobie. Any experienced grower knows when to water and that's when you pot is light. With the nute thing, it's exactly the same if you know what's in your soil, and it's alot easier to screw up hydro. You can look around the sites and see the same thing you said about soil, but for hydro, whay should my ppm's be, why are my leafs drooping, it's all the same thing, and it's all in the experience of the grower. I do though agree with you on the growth rate of hydro, you can get some amzaingly quick results. Just my 2 cents
Either one can offer fine results. I prefer to work with soiless mediums, like coco, or peat/perlite. Its still hydro, but more forgiving and more versatile than a pure water system.
I agree re: soiless mediums. I use rockwool most of the time and I just hand water it as if it were soil. I have to make sure I have the nutes in there of course since it's a neutral medium in that regard, but aside from that I can do more with less space than if I used soil.
I would like to correct you on the neutral remark. Rockwool, is on the acidic side of things, it's a good practice to soak your rockwool in ph'd water and add ph up or down to regulate to start them. I do like the idea of just growing in rockwool. My hydro store, carries those big block 1's. are you just cloning and flowering when using them?
ok PH should be checked 2x a day atleast (when u wake and before bed) ..other then that it really pretty simple as long as u use nuetrients that have micro/macro nuetrients. PH & dissolved oxygen is most important things in a hydro setup if u over feed all u do is add tap water and correct PH after the fact all. though distilled water is best cuz its ppm is 15 30 vs tap at 75-300. dont be scared of hydro we all learn somewhere. if ur new may i recommend Ebb and flow tables? due to the facts of only time for error is when the table floods .where the other systems have roots that are always submerged ,or sprayed in aero. if u have questions shoot me a pm ive been doin hydro for over 8yrs and soilless for 12yrs. one more thing if u dont wanna use Rockwool u can always use jiffy peats .i go super cheap i use 4in sq mesh pots in my dro setups with natural aquarium gravel and jiffypellets for seedlings that way i dont waste money on males using my cubes. just bury the pellet after u soaked it put it in the gravel with only the top showing in the gravel the roots will grow out the bottom of the pellet and through the gravel and out the bottom of your meshpots in 15 days or less. if u keep ph in order and one more thing do not use any ferts til day 15-20 unless plants show signs of needing ferts .i have lots of home made hydro setups if u need ideas as of the comment above on rockwool always soak your cubes in a PH of 5 for 24HRS this will allow your run off of your cubes to be 6.2-6.8 range which is what ya want ..ive cloned and grown without messing with ph of RWcubes with hardly any difference. but i prefer my babies to have everything dialed in . its not that time consuming to take a gallon of water and drop a few drops of ph down into it to get it to what ya need. ph 5.0 to soak them in with a run off of your cubes being anywhere from PH of 6 -7 this ph is what allows yor babies to eat each part of your fertz ph allows for different nuets to be used by the plant at different numbers PH IS KEY 6.0-7.0 range is where wanna keep it
I meant neutral as in having no nutrients, not pH wise. Rockwool is not acidic though, it's alkaline. It tends to have a HIGH pH, not a low one, in that regard.
So if I would like the organic all natural way.. soil is the way to go. Must hand water everyday and they should produce a lovely bud. You guys are saying that soil is great, but also is a much more slow process then hydro.. I'm thinking I want to do hydro because of the shorter life cycle and possible same outcome. I have a friend who keeps telling me to look into bubble buckets. Some of you are not recommending it.. however I think its the way for me to go. Hydro pros - rapid growth, easy to maintain, don't need to hand water everyday. Hydro cons - algae, ph up to high or to low, may not result in a soil quality taste. Soil pros - organic, no ph to worry about, great taste, if on plant goes bad then it doesn't ruin the whole crop. Soil cons - Hand water everyday, slow growth, bugs, re-pot with the soil making a mess. Just making sure I have this right... Thanks again to all of your advise.. Its helping tons!
Flowering takes the same amount of time, and frankly my soil grows have grown just about as fast in vegetative as when flowering as did my hydro grows.
I never guess when to water or if i water too much...and the only time one will ever have to flush is if he overdoses on nutes, and that only happens when the grower depends on an abundance of nutes inorder to achieve big beautiful buds rather than putting faith in the strain that one is growing. also living by the philosophy that very little is best when when growing cannabis...I've never fried a plant because I live by this philosophy! No matter which direction you take, the first time will not be easy.
really? wow that's some fast growing soil bed girls.. like I said before i'm currently doing soil and my plants are reaching 20" in two months. I have been told that with hydro, they will reach that height in half the time. Can I ask how your soil ones have grown that fast??
I would do a side by side of soil and hydro and see what works best for you. Personally, I love hydro and my indoor setup is ebb & flow. I get really great drainage with it. There are organic fertilizers you can use in hydro. Hydro systems use a lot less water than soil farming methods. If you want to go COMPLETELY organic, check out aquaponics. Basically you use fish to feed your plants (as it occurs in nature). Not many ppl have done aquaponics with cannabis (great for veggies though) because of lack of phosphorus during flowering. I did see a guy that seperated his plants from the fish (still using the fish water though) and just added supplements during flowering. He had to separate them or the supplements would kill the fish.... saves on alot of nutes and water (even compared to hydo) because its recirculating and you NEVER dump the water. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3gQ_OXREo8]YouTube - Aquaponic Cannabis[/ame]