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

E

eatyourhartout

New member
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?
 
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
 
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.
 
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.
 
eatyourhartout said:
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?
Click to expand...

Yes, it is all about what is easiest and maximum yield. For me the only way to go is coco/perlite which is hydro. I'm a scientist and a control freak, so measuring out exactly what is needed in the nute solution is what is easy for me. I use GH trio with calmag and pH down, 3 gallon cloth pots and the semi-autopot system. Smaller size pots help to keep the humidity down. The plants fill the tent so I see no reason to use a larger pot. DWC is a method I considered but after research decided that res temperature would be an issue. From reading what others do for DWC I think that is most prone to problems if you are not on the mark with everything. Soil is a mystery to me. Hats off to those who grow that way but it is not for me. Coco/p is easy, easy, easy. I read about multiple times per day watering. I call BS. Once a day is adequate. The semi-autopot system is a bottom watering method and find it to be even easier to water and healthier for the tent.
 
I appreciate all the replies. It's great to hear what's actually working for other growers. Especially these days it feels like everything and everyone is AI. It feels so genuine here compared to social media!

I'm leaning towards coco/perlite in autopots. It seems like you get a lot of the benefits of all the grow mediums that way. You can water less often like in soil, but use hydro nutrients and a reservoir to get some of the benefits of hydro.

Has anyone ever tried growing with some plants in soil and some in coco in the same 2x4 tent? And just give both set of plants General Hydroponics nutrients.

Or would I just be shooting myself in the foot to try both at once as a beginner grower?
 
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