I'm really curious as to what and why people use to grow and for what cycle. Like hydro for veging and soil for flower an vise versa with all the combinations in-between...
i use hydro for everything its just so much easyer. with soil ph is a huge issue. and just way to complex. with hydro as long as you do your reserch and dont skimp on the important stuff you can get by. with soil you have to worry about bugs a lot. with soil you also have to worry about watering perffectly. hydro both are pretty much cut out. its just all around easyer to maintain water as opposed to water and soil. i my self am doing a dwc/drip setup at the moment and am working on a mini aero cloner. i built my dwc/drip for around 75 bux. granted im needing to get a better air pump cause im going to run into root rot issues. wow. i just rambled. SUMMERY!! hydro vs. soil HYDRO>soil couch potato out!
I find that the plants taste better when grown in soil/soilless but grow faster in hydro. Either way is easy... just do a lot of searches and sticky reading. Really, I think the absolute easiest way is coco... it's similar to soil and to hydro. Fast growth, organics... best of both worlds.
Coco? <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tXWeoLThC6I&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tXWeoLThC6I&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> or [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXWeoLThC6I]YouTube - Coco Coir Premium Potting Soil[/ame] Sounds like it contains a lot of nutrients and might make accrete feeding a bit difficult?
Yuppers I'm a S2G user. Doing a grow in a BB with a 6" insert with a 1.5" cube. Sprouted seed in paper towels and moved to the 1.5 cube (which I cut in half) and then into the 6" insert. Took 12 days for the roots to push out of the cup. I have a mini Ebb/Flow system that used the 1.5 " cube in a gravel bed. Had algae issues gut H2O2 (3%) dripped on the top of the S2G cube is wacken that back. I tried to sprout a seed in the 1.5" cube to no luck. Next - I'm going to try a "Rapid Sexing" by sticking a cutting into a 1.5" cube wetted with RO water and keeping it there for a couple of weeks in a 12/12 environment. We shall see how that works out.
Soil/soilless hand-watered stuff is a billion times easier than hydro. It's also a lot cheaper and WAY less work. My plants could easily get by with me only checking on them once every three days (though I check them more often than that). Soil ph is only a problem because everyone seems to think it isn't a problem. Just pH your water to neutral before using it on your soil, and it will take care of the rest. Optimum pH for soil is around 6.5-6.8 and the soil itself acts as a very good pH buffer. If you're fertilizing infrequently enough and have pretty decent tap water, you'll never even have a pH problem in soil. It's when you live places like I do where it comes out 5.5 from the tap that you run into a problem. Also you cannot aggressively fertilize in soil without monitoring pH.
It is pretty easy. I was using tap water in my coco for weeks and my leaves would all yellow and die. As soon as I got an RO filter my plants perked up. After that, I didn't check the pH or ppms EVER again and I had a pretty good yield from them. 4x 18" plants with ~1.25 dry ounces each.
I have done two hydro grows and just finished my first soil grow. Both have their advantages but i think im going to switch back to hydro. I think they are they same amount of work, I just went above and beyond with my 3 plants and had a separate 5 gallon buckets for each without connecting them, it made it a pain in the ass to change the nutrient solution every week but i could go a week without tending to them as well. I hand watered my soil plant but the yields for hydro and so much better it feels like. AM i wrong?
What's the old expression? "Good, Fast, Cheap - Pick any two" Hydro is Good and Fast Soil is Good and Cheap
Hydro is not that difficult and not very much more expensive, and the growth rate using hydro makes up for the cost. My hydro plants are growing substantial faster than my soil based plants. The pictures speak for themselves.
im running 3 mothers in soil and their clones in a ebb and flow table. The mothers are 41 days into 12/12 and the clones are nearing 2 weeks in 12/12. Once both are dried and cured i will decide whether or not ill go full hydro or stay soil. Should be a good smoke report.