New To Growing. Soil or Hydro?

Well its win win either way, I personally went the AERO route, a form of hydro and its working great. No one will tell you there is a definite better way, so it is truly up to you. Read the stickes in the Growers section and you can learn a lot, read all the stickes for that matter.

On a side note, growing with Hydro you will still have bugs, and it can still be humid. Either way you are going to be battling the spider mites most likely, they are a pain, but easy to handle. Do a lot of research, it will help you in the long run!

 

Tons of your questions can be answered by reading stickies here...

Believe it or not hydro is pretty damn easy to set-up and maintain. It's not much more expensive than soil either if you build everything yourself. Most soil nutes can be used in hydro setups as well (although you may want to stay away from organic nutes in a hydro system).

You can setup a bubble bucket for cheap....I'm over soil. Hydro all the way.

 

why not the best of both...coco....the stickies are at the tops of the forums

 

Iv tried them both and got good results from them, in my books here are the pro's and con's on each!!

SOIL PRO'S

More forgiving if a mistake is made!!
Organic nutes can be used more freely!!
Taist is better.

SOIL CON'S

Getting the dirt to and from the Grow room.
Bugs.
Mess.

HYDRO PRO'S

More Control over the grow.
Bigger plants quicker.
Less time spent in the grow room.

HYDRO CON'S

one mistake -- Grow Fucked.
Taist.
trouble with organic nutes.

hope this helps

 

hehe. I chose AERO as my first grow

 

I went with soil for a few grows and it does seem like bugs are always present. I love the idea of organics but that's really the beauty of coco. Amending coco organically is a great route as well.

Maybe 20% Perlite, 50-60% coco, and some organic composted fertilizers (hopefully good clean stuff). Run an organic nutrient supplement system and keep your pH close to 6.0 to 6.2 to keep your biologicals healthy as the coco will buffer itself in that range.

You could also just go pure coco. There are some issues I'm seeing more often as this media is more frequently used. Knowing when to add specific nutrients is important because it is a hydro system. Each 5 days or so it seems like a different micro or macro nutrient is suddenly in very high supply and you'll wind up chasing issues.

My suggestion for pure coco is to use a planter that offers great aeration. SmartPots are pretty much the only option as they are still relatively cheap. If you are growing indoors then 3 gallons of coco is all you will need per plant. Go with the A+B nutrient system and make sure you get yourself a calcium supplement and a magnesium supplement. You will need the ability to tune the amounts of calcium, magnesium and sometimes even potassium in the media.

Days 1 to 10 is a time to "charge" the coco with calcium and low levels of nutrients, 11 to 15 you need extra magnesium and a little less calcium. 20 to 30 is a good time to supplement moderate levels of both calcium and magnesium (and a variety of other micro nutrients like silicon, iron, sulfur, etc) and to up the macro nutrients to about 80% of your intended maximum levels.

During 30 to 40 you can max out your nutrients, but be sure to feed to saturation with a bit of run off and don't allow the media to dry out. I like to do a 50% strength feeding once out of every 3 waterings beginning now through to the end of life. This would be a fine time to begin flowering and have a 16" to 24" plant already. After day 40 you can cut out calcium (you still get some from the macro mix) and just pump in magnesium and potassium for the next 10 to 20 days, or rather the first 2-3 weeks of flowering. Around week 3 of flowering you'll need some phosphorus, and you can level out on the potassium and bring back in some calcium for a week to 10 days while you up your phosphates. Keep your magnesium levels as high as you can through to week 6 and 7 and hit them again with a bit more phosphate and potassium one last time before cutting way back on your nutrients.

Get yourself a ppm meter and ph meter combo. You will need it, don't think you won't. Run 200ppm in early veg, upping it gradually to 800ppm by full veg. In early flowering you might be running close to 1000, but don't do that for long, dip back down to 800 and just taper down to 600 before dropping into a 100ppm or less for the last 10 days or so. No need to flush.

Going the organic route offers you a bit more leeway and allows the plant to manage a very robust and healthy ecosystem as a result of the coco's spongy structure. The hydroponic route will grow larger plants faster but you run risks. I hope this helps get you on the right path out of the gates.

 

im am pretty sure ppm is parts per million bro.

 

I would go with soil. A good soil like FF ocean forest or something along that line. Taste is way better on soil and to me since I'm the one growing I want the best tasting, stinkiest bud possible and that just wont happen with hydro. As far as the bugs I have never had any but I guess thats just from taking better care of the plants and the grow area than others and not moving the plants back and forth from inside to outside. One last reason I like soil is that they naturally grow in soil...not water