What's the best grow style? (for you)

[MeowMeow]

I know this has to get asked all the time. And I also know there is no official "best" way to grow weed.

But what's your favorite?

Most common cannabis grow styles

• Super soil - organic amended soil that has lots of nutrients to last to harvest
• Soil - just regular soil that needs you to add nutrients after a few weeks
• Coco - ground coconut husks, halfway between soil and hydro, hydro nutrients
• Hydro - roots in oxygenated water, usually in a tub or bucket, hydro nutrients.

My experience: I've tried them all and they all have their pluses and minuses. In the end, I've realized the weed comes out the same regardless of the grow medium. The bud quality comes from seeds, plant health, flowering environment, harvest practices. Yields comes from seeds, timing, and plant training.

Since the buds come out the same, what's most important to me with grow style is how much time it takes to care for the plants. That has made me realize that when growing weed, nutrients and watering take the most time on a day-to-day basis. So if you make watering and nutrients easy, you make growing the weed easy.

• For me, super soil attracted bugs and I struggled with nutrient deficiencies in the late flowering stage. Plus I used Nature's Living Soil which smelled PUNGENT and stunk up the grow room for weeks. I did love that you just gave plain water in super soil, without nutrients. But my water has high pH so I started seeing nutrient deficiencies even though there was plenty of nutrients in the soil. So I used citric crystals to bring the pH down before watering, which solved the nutrients deficiencies, but at that point I was using a pH pen, collecting runoff water... it felt like I was mixing nutrients again.
• Soil is easiest at first, since soil gives plants the nutrients they need for the first few weeks, but it's also prone to bugs and after a while it takes as much time as growing in coco because you have to add nutrients to the water or buds won't get big. If you have a pH problem, it's hard to flush soil to fix it. It can take weeks to fix a bad pH problem in soil.
• Coco gets faster growth for me than soil, and no bugs, and pH is basically always the same as the water you put in, but you have to feed with nutrient water every watering so I find myself mixing nutrients more than once a week. And since you need runoff water in coco every watering when they're older, I end up flushing tons of nutrients down the drain. Literally; I collect the runoff water and flush it down the toilet since I heard that's better for the sewers than to put nutrient water down the regular drain.
• Hydro can be tough to start, because plants are prone to root rot for the first few weeks, but after that, growing weed in hydro is by far the easiest, least-time consuming, and cheapest way to grow weed. You just make a reservoir of nutrient water and refill when it gets low. Easy to adjust pH and nutrient levels, no collecting runoff water, so plants only take a few minutes a day. With hydro, one bottle of nutrients lasts years; which subsequently made me really particular about nutrient bottle design/lids (FU Dyna-gro, love you Gen Hydro), but that's a rant for another time.

What's the best cannabis grow medium, for you personally, so far? And why?

[Bowhunterwoody]

I'm a soil guy. I tried coco once. Was good but I didn't like to have to water every day, sometimes twice. I'm a little anal about fresh nutes and ph so I make them up fresh every time I feed. To me if you use a big enough pot and let the plant tell you what it wants, you only have to water every 3 days in soil. I travel often so I need the extra time between feedings. The rest of the time once the plant is trained the way you like it, it's just watching the grass grow. Easy peazy.

[MeowMeow]

Just curious, have you ever tried those auto-watering pot bases that have a little reservoir underneath? I've heard they work well with soil.

Also, have you ever experienced bugs? I apparently am prone to thrips when I grow in soil. I'm pretty sure I need to re-seal my windows because that's the only way they could be getting in.

[Bowhunterwoody]

Hey MeowMeow. Knock on wood the only bugs I've had indoors are Fungus gnats that must come with the soil. Proper watering usually takes care of them with a trap or or 2. Outdoors is another story. I haven't tried the self watering pots yet but they look like something I might try.

[Chipmunk]

I spray my soil with hydrogen peroxide and water solution before it gets put in my grow tents that are in the basement. Always no gnats. Just a spider or 2

[Ckbrew]

Coco/perlite hydro. Tend it once a day and forget it until harvest.

[golfnrl]

I started off in soil. That didn't work well for me. I switched to a 5050 blend of coco/perlite when I started using the autopot system (https://www.autopot-usa.com/). I've used that system exclusively for a number of years now. I use a 12 gallon reservoir and grow in 5 gallon cloth pots.

[dirtymike]

In any state that has dirt and is legal is my grow style. Anyone need a "live out" hippie to water and nute their crops for smoke, hollar loud.

[Beeman]

Currently growing in soil. Have tried fox farm soils, Promix and sunshine mix4. Later 2 pretty much the same been using sunshine mix4 last couple grows it is available at me nards for a good price. Last indoor grow used it with some self watering pots at thrift store was by far my easiest grow used grow dots with recharge. Also been using gh flora grow and bloom with good results right now growing outside with my home made soil of half sunshine mix and home compost.