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Grow method comparison - how to determine the best method for my space

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Grow method comparison - how to determine the best method for my space

spase 19 Replies 2,551 Views
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spase

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#1
I'm working on my first grow. I just went with soil, but have a decent set up for a small indoor grow.
I'd like to get this to as easy as possible while getting great potency and good yields. There are so many methods. Does anyone have good experience with multiple methods? What would you do if starting now?
I know historically, hydro has been one of the best, with aero edging it out. I've been hearing good things about the self pruning cloth pots. I'm sure there's more.
 
#2
I’m on my first indoor grow as well First try is outdoors and still under way. I am doing a living soil grow. I found I do not enjoy mixing up batches up nutrients.

So I’m using Natures Living Soil. Then Top dress every couple weeks and then they have a soil revival that is supposed to keep everything in the soil healthy that I will use weekly.

In my mind this will be much easier.
 
#3
Seems like hydro and coco don’t hold the terms as long as soil for me. I do super soil, water only. All I have to do is water every few day once they get bigger and throw some sugars and recharge in there. Mixing the soil is a pain and a lot of people don’t have the space to mix it or keep it. It seems to store way longer for me in soil. If you’re looking for simple then a bottle of flora move bloom and some molasses. Boom done. Max yeild would be hydro for me but it’s not as good and i have to deal with it every day. Coco is hydro lite. I don’t worry about yield just quality. Plus I’m not trying to spend time mixing nutes everyday.
 
#4
I have done hydro ( fail ) and now doing soil. I have one successful grow and another one 4-5 weeks out.
I like soil because I have grown for outdoors for years. I wanted to do hydro due to the challenges involved but sadley spent $30 on a pH pen. I did not even have the experience as to why I failed until I read diaries where the same cheapo pH pen always seemed to be involved.
Once I build up a little stash with my organic grows I am pretty set on airpots and dtw coco. The yield is outstanding the pest issue is minimal and after reading up a lot I believe I can figure out nutrition and water cycles.
 
#5
There's not a perfect "grow method" out there. Each one has their strengths as liabilities. Hydro grows produce large plants as long as everything is dialed in. However with the faster growth comes crash and burn when things get out of line. This doesn't mean "don't do hydro." It's an excellent way to grow. Same with soil, or coco. Since each have their own strengths and weaknesses, pick the one that works best for you.

For the new growers who posted above about feeling organics is superior. Not really ... it's a timing game your playing with micro-organisms. When it works, it works well. When it doesn't it brings on a lot of frustrations. My experience? Organics works much better outside in the presence of nature than it does indoors.

Mixing nutrients - I'm assuming that we're talking about salts based nutrients. I find that easy. I look at the feed chart. I measure them out and feed my plants. It works well. It's easy to have good results because you're not waiting for microbes to break down organics into plant useable form.

Take your pick. All work well once you've done it for a while. Each has its own learning curve. Each one is a viable option.
 
#6
I’m now on week 3 since flip on my second grow. My first grow was coco/perlite and as far as the medium went the grow went really well. I had one issue with either a lockout or deficiency, but I just flushed the hell out of the medium and adjusted my nutes and everything cleared right up. I realized I wasn’t watering enough at a time and EC built up really high, but the flush cleared that out. The problem with coco for me was that it should definitely be considered a hydro, and while it seemed impossible to overwater, they did require nutes/water everyday—at one point I was giving one plant a gallon and a half in a 5 gallon fabric pot just to get 10% runoff. If I tried to skip a day, that amount nearly doubled and checking the runoff showed the EC had skyrocketed. I messed up the harvest time, but still got quite a few ounces of quality bud.
This time I bought the Spider Farmer 7 gallon top drip DWC hydro set up and things are going great and it’s a lot of fun, too. The plants are drinking about 3 quarts a day now, but often I only need to add ph’d water so no big deal. I have all the stuff to set up a replenishment method, but the way I designed it means I won’t be able to move the buckets, so I’m waiting till I do the 3 week defoliation I see recommended on GWE. Last grow I didn’t defoliate and ran into issues with popcorn larf buds. All said, I’m definitely enjoying hydro more and my plants are doing really well so far. I really like that if things go tits up, I can drain the reservoirs, refill with fresh nutes with whatever change I think I need to make, and know that things will happen immediately. I’m not just trusting that the organic material and given nutes in a soil are correct, which I can tell takes some experience to dial in. I do see a lot of people say that buds grown in organic or other soils are higher quality and smoke better than hydro, but since I’ve only ever used dispensary stuff, I can’t comment on that.
All that said, I also have an auto growing outside in Ocean Forest and am really enjoying watching that thing grow naturally. It’s teaching me a lot about how weed grows.
Do note that if you do either coco or hydro, I highly recommend a good ph pen like Apera. I went through three cheap ones my first grow and each time they failed I almost lost my plants.
Keep us posted what you decide on. I started a grow diary for this grow just for fun, but I haven’t been keeping up with it at all like I wanted to.
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#7
RoadKillSkunkHunt said:
There's not a perfect "grow method" out there. Each one has their strengths as liabilities. Hydro grows produce large plants as long as everything is dialed in. However with the faster growth comes crash and burn when things get out of line. This doesn't mean "don't do hydro." It's an excellent way to grow. Same with soil, or coco. Since each have their own strengths and weaknesses, pick the one that works best for you.

For the new growers who posted above about feeling organics is superior. Not really ... it's a timing game your playing with micro-organisms. When it works, it works well. When it doesn't it brings on a lot of frustrations. My experience? Organics works much better outside in the presence of nature than it does indoors.

Mixing nutrients - I'm assuming that we're talking about salts based nutrients. I find that easy. I look at the feed chart. I measure them out and feed my plants. It works well. It's easy to have good results because you're not waiting for microbes to break down organics into plant useable form.

Take your pick. All work well once you've done it for a while. Each has its own learning curve. Each one is a viable option.
Click to expand...
By no means did I mean it to be superior. Hell I have no experience. I just found I did not like using the Fox Farm Trio or Salt Nutes.

But your post made me think what was it that I didn’t like about it… Well I think my issues was having multiple plants with weeks inbetween them so I was constant having to mix up different batches. + I had 20 or so veggie plants I was trying to feed as well so it all just became very overwhelming.

Thanks for messing me all up and now I gotta split this current grow into living soil and The Trio. 😜
 
#8
Weedly said:
I’m now on week 3 since flip on my second grow. My first grow was coco/perlite and as far as the medium went the grow went really well. I had one issue with either a lockout or deficiency, but I just flushed the hell out of the medium and adjusted my nutes and everything cleared right up. I realized I wasn’t watering enough at a time and EC built up really high, but the flush cleared that out. The problem with coco for me was that it should definitely be considered a hydro, and while it seemed impossible to overwater, they did require nutes/water everyday—at one point I was giving one plant a gallon and a half in a 5 gallon fabric pot just to get 10% runoff. If I tried to skip a day, that amount nearly doubled and checking the runoff showed the EC had skyrocketed. I messed up the harvest time, but still got quite a few ounces of quality bud.
This time I bought the Spider Farmer 7 gallon top drip DWC hydro set up and things are going great and it’s a lot of fun, too. The plants are drinking about 3 quarts a day now, but often I only need to add ph’d water so no big deal. I have all the stuff to set up a replenishment method, but the way I designed it means I won’t be able to move the buckets, so I’m waiting till I do the 3 week defoliation I see recommended on GWE. Last grow I didn’t defoliate and ran into issues with popcorn larf buds. All said, I’m definitely enjoying hydro more and my plants are doing really well so far. I really like that if things go tits up, I can drain the reservoirs, refill with fresh nutes with whatever change I think I need to make, and know that things will happen immediately. I’m not just trusting that the organic material and given nutes in a soil are correct, which I can tell takes some experience to dial in. I do see a lot of people say that buds grown in organic or other soils are higher quality and smoke better than hydro, but since I’ve only ever used dispensary stuff, I can’t comment on that.
All that said, I also have an auto growing outside in Ocean Forest and am really enjoying watching that thing grow naturally. It’s teaching me a lot about how weed grows.
Do note that if you do either coco or hydro, I highly recommend a good ph pen like Apera. I went through three cheap ones my first grow and each time they failed I almost lost my plants.
Keep us posted what you decide on. I started a grow diary for this grow just for fun, but I haven’t been keeping up with it at all like I wanted to.
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Keep doing what you're doing ... if it works for you that's what matters..

As for organic soil grows, synthetic soil grows, and hydro grows, the quality of the bud comes down to the skill of the grower. It's a myth that "organics" is smother than "synthetics." Your plants don't care where their nutrition comes out of a bottle or out of the soil.

aggiefarmer said:
By no means did I mean it to be superior. Hell I have no experience. I just found I did not like using the Fox Farm Trio or Salt Nutes.

But your post made me think what was it that I didn’t like about it… Well I think my issues was having multiple plants with weeks inbetween them so I was constant having to mix up different batches. + I had 20 or so veggie plants I was trying to feed as well so it all just became very overwhelming.

Thanks for messing me all up and now I gotta split this current grow into living soil and The Trio. 😜
Click to expand...

That's just my point. There isn't a superior method. The best one for you is the one you feel most comfortable with. I use GH Flora series and I love it. I've also run organic only grows for a number of years. I get better yields with synthetics over organics. Your results may be different.
 
#9
I was thinking I'd go with dwc, but I've got a couple fabric pots that came with a tent I got for drying and curing. I'm thinking I'll try a coco in fabric run.
Has anyone used the ac infinity auto watering trays?
I'd think I'd either set that up or a drip. I'm unsure how the trays work, so the drip seems better to me.
 
#10
spase said:
I'm working on my first grow. I just went with soil, but have a decent set up for a small indoor grow.
I'd like to get this to as easy as possible while getting great potency and good yields. There are so many methods. Does anyone have good experience with multiple methods? What would you do if starting now?
I know historically, hydro has been one of the best, with aero edging it out. I've been hearing good things about the self pruning cloth pots. I'm sure there's more.
Click to expand...
I do like the fabric pots make sure when you transplant. To transplant in a larger fabric pot and I like growing in soil I like to use the do farm ocean forest or happy frog. Just take care of temp and humidity and lighting and you should be be ok
 
#11
spase said:
I was thinking I'd go with dwc, but I've got a couple fabric pots that came with a tent I got for drying and curing. I'm thinking I'll try a coco in fabric run.
Has anyone used the ac infinity auto watering trays?
I'd think I'd either set that up or a drip. I'm unsure how the trays work, so the drip seems better to me.
Click to expand...
Yes, I have a dozen of them in my greenhouse. I put float valves in mine and they auto-fill from my rain barrel. I just posted pictures in another thread ... This year its tomatoes and peppers. I have also had good luck growing cannabis on them too ... however I have never used them inside.
 
#12
RoadKillSkunkHunt said:
Keep doing what you're doing ... if it works for you that's what matters..

As for organic soil grows, synthetic soil grows, and hydro grows, the quality of the bud comes down to the skill of the grower. It's a myth that "organics" is smother than "synthetics." Your plants don't care where their nutrition comes out of a bottle or out of the soil.



That's just my point. There isn't a superior method. The best one for you is the one you feel most comfortable with. I use GH Flora series and I love it. I've also run organic only grows for a number of years. I get better yields with synthetics over organics. Your results may be different.
Click to expand...
I agree 100% with everything you said there, very well put!💯👍✌️
 
#13
spase said:
I'm working on my first grow. I just went with soil, but have a decent set up for a small indoor grow.
I'd like to get this to as easy as possible while getting great potency and good yields. There are so many methods. Does anyone have good experience with multiple methods? What would you do if starting now?
I know historically, hydro has been one of the best, with aero edging it out. I've been hearing good things about the self pruning cloth pots. I'm sure there's more.
Click to expand...
Logically, from an objective input/output perspective if you are looking to produce medicinal crop, hydro-tek is king/queen and will be for the foreseeable future. I say this as someone who has a deep preference for living soil. The fact of the matter is that hydro-tek outperforms on a consistent basis relative to others. This isn't a rule of thumb or wishful thinking or cognitive bias. From the plant's side, you get (1) faster root metabolism mostly due to oxygen availability (2) a higher photo-related ceiling as root supply is not a limiting factor any longer (3) quicker, more precise delivery than any method other than targeted micro applications of foliar sprays. On the flower side, you get (1) stronger uniformity across secondary metabolites than other methods from run to run of the same cultivar and (2) the chance to introduce zero potential media related flavor leeching (like through humics or fulvics). On the planet side, we get (1) better water allocation and (2) better nutrient allocation but also (3) objectively less of a carbon footprint [unless you ship your water across the world and squeeze it out of rocks with forges powered by coal]. On pathogen and pest management, we get (1) the ability to close your loop or (2) go sterile and (3) reduced touches on the plant meaning less risk in the first place. On the heuristics side of things, we get (1) the real capacity to automate and (2) roughly half the labor required to tend crop... You can keep going, hydro-tek just wins in this conversation. From root zone temperature to dew point stability, hydro-tek is going to be the final ending point for anyone who continues iterating and improving in an attempt to optimize certain things. Any other choice but hydro is a particular trade off choosing to optimize something that isn't labor, efficiency in inputs, carbon footprint, and so on.
 
#14
It also helps to be brutally honest with yourself about how you are with projects. If you're like me and must tinker with shit constantly, go with hydro in coco. I've got a drip thread going on right now if you have any questions or just want to talk shop.

No one fails at soil better than me, but all I need is now is light, air and some salty water!
 
#15
I would seriously consider using Earth Boxes. I use them and the plants love them.
 

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#16
So the hydro in coco is going to be my next grow. It will hopefully take some pressure off when I need to travel as I'd be able to automate a lot of the work. I'm ordering cloth pots, coco, pearlite, pumps and reservoirs. I started one of the clones. I'm going to do the same 2 plants I've got now. I'll try and get the Indica a bit bigger as the sativa definitely stretched a lot more.
 
#17
spase said:
So the hydro in coco is going to be my next grow. It will hopefully take some pressure off when I need to travel as I'd be able to automate a lot of the work. I'm ordering cloth pots, coco, pearlite, pumps and reservoirs. I started one of the clones. I'm going to do the same 2 plants I've got now. I'll try and get the Indica a bit bigger as the sativa definitely stretched a lot more.
Click to expand...
I went through several watering set ups and have settled on using a wifi power strip, fountain pump for mixing, 850gph pump for irrigation, 1/2" hose to the splitters, and 1/4" hose from splitters to each plant, into a water ring.

The power strip is because they have an inching setting so you can water in 1 second intervals. (outlets only work in minute resolutions)

I printed my water dispersal rings because I couldn't find anything the size I wanted.

It's, cheap, simple and I can water a little at a time all day, and set the schedule and length of time I water.

I can maintain 8 plants on 15 gallons of water for 10 days, growing in coco. Dosing pumps can deliver nutes into your resevoir at the appropriate amount if you wanted to go further. I could premix three 15 gallon resevoirs, and be hands off for 30 days, by just switching to another pump on the power strip that's sourced from another resevoir. Or you can mix veg nutes and flower nutes in diff resevoirs and run a blend when you transition from veg to flower, and then flower nutes only. Lots of options.
 
#18
Thanks for the insight!
I've got some of this on order already. It's showing up today. I'm still looking into the timers. But I've got some pumps coming. I'm going to be sticking with 2 plants for now. I might just use my 5 gallon buckets as reservoirs. They should be ok for a while.
 
#19
Buckets are fine. I only have the setup I have because getting to the basement is difficult for me, so long times between 'service calls' is better. Wheel chairs and stairs are a bad combo.

Small sprinkler emitters work good for a while but they will clog unless you use a total liquid, non viscous nute like the gh flora 3 part nutes. The gh micro gro/bloom clog them up pretty fast. So a dispersal ring works better.

I use a small fountain pump to continuously mix the nute in the res, and 850gph 'pool cover' pumps dont blast water out, but i can water up to 10 places and keep it even. Beyond 10 I would need bigger pumps or each ring beyong 10 would get less and less water.

I don't do drain to waste because it uses too much water, and I would have to refill sooner. So at each refill I flush will plain water. Basically I reset once every 10-12ish days instead of each day.

There's a million ways to do it. This is just what I've picked up. I do it this way because anyone disabled that grows for medical reasons, probably isn't going to be capable of hauling buckes of dirt around, flushing, disinfecting, and baby sitting plants daily. So for all the info I give that's where I'm coming from. If you're capable and can do it, feel free to do it another way.

A web cam with time lapse... priceless in my opinion for dialing in everything, or spotting a problem immediately.
 
#20
We're in the basement with the plants here. So in and out is easy enough. I need the video anyways so I can look without opening the room.
 
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