Transitioning From Soil To Hydro

[jaybodankly]

I dont think you are a dickhead. You dont personally attack me and you talk about your experiences growing. We are good. You have good reasons for your style of growing and get results. That forms strong opinions on the subject for anyone. We are fellow growers with different approaches. You are probably not going to ditch your hydro gear after this conversation nor an I likely to throw out my dirt.
Soil has a larger buffer for error. It is the easiest way to say it. Hydro is cleaner style, efficient and produces excellent plants but harder to recover from problems. When they happen they tend to happen fast.
My assumption is OP wants to grow better plants. Changing from one grow medium to another is not really a good an answer as improving your lighting factor or grow environment.

 

[Junk]

I dont think you are a dickhead.

That's the nicest thing anyone has said to me all day ; ) I'm glad you understood where I was coming from.

Soil has a larger buffer for error.

100% agreed. I think that is part of what makes it tricky though. Sometimes it takes a couple days for a problem to show up, then by the time it does, you don't have the same level of clarity as to what caused it.

Also, to fix it, is going to be another couple days.

But the people who grow really well in soil, grow really good product. As do the people who grow well in hydro.

You know what it comes down to I think Jay? And this just came to me, so, feel free to vet it. There is a learning curve, no matter which style you do. But one way isn't necessarily harder/better than the other. Having learned both, I find hydro to actually be the easier way. And I have always offered anyone a recipe that will grow photo worthy plants, with almost no thought at all. Different strains can be tweaked, but almost any cannabis plant will thrive in it.

With soil, that buffer that saves a lot of people, is also leading to a bit of confusion because of the response time. After I started hydro, where changes can be seen in a couple hours, soil becomes a lot less mystifying. That "save your ass buffer" that soil gives, also leads to a longer learning curve imo.

Hydro has tighter tolerances. Less room to screw up your recipe, but I can give people one that they just mix and pour and you tweak from there. But the benefit, is that I know exactly what my plants are taking in at all times, down to the ppm. Measuring your levels in soil is much harder, and less accurate.

I think everyone should try both at some point in their lives. The way it started with me was a single DWC, and I never looked back. I find the precision makes my life easier. I know my N P K levels at all times, I know my water temps, I know my ph. It leads to a more precise understanding of what the plant wants. Where as the "buffer," you don't know what's going on.

A lot of people think that "hydro" guys, are the gurus. The ones who really know their stuff. And any particular hydro grower, might truly know their stuff. But on average....imo, it's harder to grow a perfect plant in soil, than in hydro. I consider the people who kill it in soil, especially all organic, to be the real gurus. To "kill it" growing that way, is very, very, difficult. Imo, hydro is easy. If you can measure in ml, and mix with water, you can kill it in hydro.

 

[jaybodankly]

I would need to study-up to move to hydro. A different set of skills and things to watch for. I have been an organic grower for to long to want to switch. But I might do a hydro run sometime just for the experience.

 

[visajoe1]

I would need to study-up to move to hydro. A different set of skills and things to watch for. I have been an organic grower for to long to want to switch. But I might do a hydro run sometime just for the experience.

Great thread! Lots of good points and perspective from both sides. I think this applies to a lot of folks out there, hope they can gleam something from it.

I identify with both sides here, soil and hydro. I recently switched. @Junk nails it when he describes the learning curve, IMO. @jaybodankly has logical reasoning, and common I think, to be hesitant or avoid hydro. Yes, soil is easier to grow in generally speaking, but harder to grow high quality and/or yield. Lag time in plant responses makes diagnoses and repair a little more difficult like junk said earlier. Not a fan of the bugs either.

Hydro learning curve is pretty quick. Its a checklist and recipe. Check all the boxes, so to speak, and you are rolling in expert mode. Most of which needs to be stable in any medium. Air/water temps, air circulation, EC levels, RH %.
Check ph every other day, top off with ph'd RO as needed, change nutes once per week. Stock backup pumps as needed

I spend more time staring at them or defoliating then mixing/changing nutes, etc
LOL

 

[jaybodankly]

I grow in part the way I do because it fits my worldview of trying to live a simpler life without buying to much stuff. I like to grow my own food, split wood, be outdoors etc. I have a herd of worms that supplies me with excellent fertilizer in exchange for any organic waste including my paper-stream. I easily make 50gal a year of wormcastings. I like systems that support each other. One of my girls getting ready.

 

[Junk]

Yes, soil is easier to grow in generally speaking, but harder to grow high quality and/or yield. Lag time in plant responses makes diagnoses and repair a little more difficult like junk said earlier. Not a fan of the bugs either.

Hydro learning curve is pretty quick. Its a checklist and recipe. Check all the boxes, so to speak, and you are rolling in expert mode. Most of which needs to be stable in any medium. Air/water temps, air circulation, EC levels, RH %.
Check ph every other day, top off with ph'd RO as needed, change nutes once per week. Stock backup pumps as needed

I spend more time staring at them or defoliating then mixing/changing nutes, etc

You read my mind.

Either way is fine, but I think people are fooling themselves if they think hydro is too hard.

I've done soil, extensively. Hydro, a fair bit. Of the two, I think hydro is way less work to grow amazing bud. For me, it's incomparable. I appreciate anyone who can grow well, in any medium.

But I have been gardening for 25+ years, everything from fruit trees, to veggies, and berry patches to grapevines.....in soil. Plus plants, in soil, since it became legal medically in MA. I've got a good handle on it. I can grow better plants in the hydro setup with almost no effort. It's like Visajoe said, all the work is prepping the seeds/clones, and I'll add, harvest time. But those apply to both mediums.

If environment is perfect, hydro just makes growing an amazingly good plant, so simple, and for me, it feels like a lot less work.

I grow in part the way I do because it fits my worldview of trying to live a simpler life without buying to much stuff. I like to grow my own food, split wood, be outdoors etc. I have a herd of worms that supplies me with excellent fertilizer in exchange for any organic waste including my paper-stream. I easily make 50gal a year of wormcastings. I like systems that support each other. One of my girls getting ready.

If I were you, I would just keep doing what you are doing. She's beautiful.

I've tried growing the way you do. I do it outside all the time. I have compost piles of varying stages. But for cannabis, I've done the teas, the coconut water, a couple of the brews. Hat's off to you, I bet it tastes amazing. Personally, I think hydro is the easier way out, and I like easy.

What strain is that? She's nice.

 

[jaybodankly]

Thanks, it is a GSC I got in seed form. Has that nice cookie flavor. While I do brew up some earthworm castings tea for them. I am more about creating an exceptional environment for them to grow in. I have had plenty of fantastic hydro weed so I dont think it is the nutritional component that truly defines a plant. I am also from the great State of MA.

 

[DaKindBud]

Don't let these dirt growers scare you. I have grown organically since I planted my first seed way back when... Now I am growing in water with a few guys who are showing me the way. Try, fail, try, fail...in the end succeed.

 

[Junk]

I am more about creating an exceptional environment for them to grow in.

Aside from genetics, and assuming you can grow them w/o burning them, the environment is the most crucial element.

I am also from the great State of MA.

Where at?

Don't let these dirt growers scare you. I have grown organically since I planted my first seed way back when... Now I am growing in water with a few guys who are showing me the way. Try, fail, try, fail...in the end succeed.
View attachment 676894

Oh the things I could do with that ceiling height...

 

[jaybodankly]

Nice clean design @DaKindBud.
I am in the North West corner of the state.

 

[gwheels]

I am a newer grower and i started using organic soil and nutes. I was able to pull 8 oz from my 4 x 4 tent with autoflowers. It is my benchmark. What I found to be the largest pain in the ass was watering everything. 8 plants needing water almost daily. And I am an overwatering fool so it was constant problems.

I bought a 4 pot autopot system. It has 4 pots that are 4 gallons each (i used perlite and coco in the pots) and the pots sit in a tray that has a float system they take water as they need to from the reservoir (14 gallon res). The system is gravity feed into the floats with 1/4 tubing

And I use the general hydro trio now. More stable PH and it does not mess with the TDS as much as organics do.

Now I fill up the reservoir once a week or so with 5 gallons of RO water and nutes (PHD and TDS checked). It gets stirred up with an underwater pump that is on 15 minutes every 2 hours.

The plants are vegging like crazy right now. The healthiest best looking plants I have ever grown.

I have no experience with DWC but I have two system that came with growboxes I bought. What I do know is with that system i can murder seeds at a record pace.

The autopots took that problem out of the equation. I love them.

And now i can check my plants every 3 or 4 days.

It is like DWC for dummies :D

 

[DaKindBud]

@jaybodankly thank you bruv, if you ever are around the cap city give me a shout we can link up.

 

[jaybodankly]

Thanks. @DaKindBud.