Do you try to "Grow Easy" or "Grow More"? Soil vs Coco vs Hydro

[eatyourhartout]

I'm about to start my next grow and trying to decide between soil, coco, or hydro. I was curious what you all thought.

Soil - My first two grows were in potting soil from Home Depot (not special cannabis soil). Most of the problems I ran into were beginner problems, not soil problems. I've read soil is the easiest way to grow weed, especially if you start with good soil. Soil has a lot of what plants need, and you don't need to give nutrients in the water until the soil is depleted.

Coco - I've read that coco is more work but, if you do it right, plants grow faster/get bigger yields and less a chance of bugs. But I've read you have to water the plants more often than in soil, and give them nutrients from the beginning since the coco doesn't have any.

Hydro - Supposedly gets the fastest growth and biggest yields. I've read that hydro in 5-gallon buckets are easy to start but hard when plants get bigger. DWC Hydro in a 10-gallon tub is hard to start because you have to make the tub, but once you've got it set up, DWC hydro supposedly the easiest way to grow. Since you just occasionally add nutrient water but don't have watering/runoff/pH lockout woes.

I was curious. When you're deciding what grow medium, are you looking for what's going to be the easiest and least amount of work/time? Or are you looking to maximize what you can produce in your grow space? Or somewhere in between?

 

[Chipmunk]

That is about the person and their willingness to put in time and effort and maybe wanting to learn something new and let's throw in patience. For me soil base is good enough. I get good yields and bud quality and always have more ganja than I can smoke. Bud quality is the most important to me and yield is 2nd. Alot of the great growers on this forum use coco coir and perlite. Maybe you want to try that for fun, and you shouldn't need any change in your setup like hydro. I don't have bug problems with using soil because I spray down my soil with hydrogen peroxide and water before it goes in the tent. You always learn something when you mix things up! Happy growing

 

[Chipmunk]

OOps. I use fox farm Happy frog and coco loco 50/50 and 20% course perlite added to that total volume

 

[Allotrope1000]

I grow in 50/50 coco/perlite with GH Trio nutes mixed per GWEs recommendations, pH is 5.8-6,2. 7 gsllon fsbric pots
My personal opinion is that you have MUCH MORE control over the many variables and eliminate a lot of. Coco and pots are reusable for many grows.
As for "grow more or grow easy", I do both at once. Can do 12 plants in my greenhouse (more) and c/p is easy.

But, always your choice. It's how you learn.

 

[golfnrl]

I started off in soil and switched to coco/perlite when I began using the autopot system. I was chasing yields but now am after quality. As @Allotrope1000 has stated I also like the control that coco gives. I know exactly what the plants get and when they get it. And I like that coco is reusable.

If you're interested in hydro, check out the autopot system. It's a bottom feed wicking type system that uses a reservoir. If you are leery of having to water too often with coco, with autopots that is not an issue at all. The system has no moving parts and operates off of gravity. Very user friendly, hence the reason I tried it in the first place.