Hydro vs Soil test

Today I transplanted two sets of identical seedlings into soil and hydro to directly test the differences between the two mediums. This consists of one Auto Purple Kush in hydro and one in soil as well as one Green Crack Auto in hydro and one in soil. I've previously grown soil but never hydro. My hydro set up is a 3 bucket (2 plants, 1 res) RDWC system with a top feed addition. I will be using the GH flora trio, cal/mag, and hydroguard in the water. The soil setup consists of 2 5gal fabric pots and organic soil with watering/fox farm nute cycle.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out with several different variable factors. Anyone have any thoughts on what will happen? Predictions? Previous experience with comparisons?

Well if you are experienced with hydro then it will have faster growth rates, better yield and superior terpene production. If you have issues with hydro (DWC is prone to root rot) then you will be hating it lol.

Organic soil?Then watering with synthetic nutes?You'd be better off using coco or if organic true organic is just plain water.
My guess is the hydro will be easier and have less problems.
edit,,,,,,, providing you dont over feed and have a good understanding of how hydro works.

They both have their positives and negatives.

Also clones would be a better side by side. Seeds can vary.

I did this test some years back on hear. The hydro will out perform the soil as previously stated. I dumped the soil ones because of gnats. If a mistake is made, the hydro will show faster. Corrections also show faster in hydro.

IF you can grow both healthy I'd put my money on the hydro without hesitation.
I think most people started with soil and progressed to hydro, if it wasn't superior we'd all still be using soil.

Valid points! Thanks for the feedback. Even after the first day of transplant the seedlings in the hydro are reaching for the lights whereas the soil are not there yet. I dont plan on feeding nutrients to the soil plants for another week or so depending on how they adapt to the transplant. So far so good

Star Dog said:

IF you can grow both healthy I'd put my money on the hydro without hesitation.
I think most people started with soil and progressed to hydro, if it wasn't superior we'd all still be using soil.

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Yes I think your point about progressing to hydro rings true, I've just managed a couple of soil grows and now I'm giving the Wilma system a go, in the future IL probably try more hydro systems, no more soil for me although I'll have lessons to be learned doing hydro.

Hydro will surely make bigger plants unless you fuck up somehow. Especially with autos when you have pretty much set time that they start flowering, the plants will benefit tons of the faster growth rate of hydro sure. However there might be some pheno variation, but it could be that small pheno in hydro would be same size than large pheno in soil, but large pheno in soil would take longer to finish. Who knows..

Im interested to see how it goes. Keep us posted!

We all fk up it's part of learning bur once you hone your method you'll be glad you ditched the soil.

Can i ask why a Wilma set up?
Just curious why you have picked that one?

Cheers SD

Its all about personal preference. NO OFFENSE but most people aren't experts in both methods so most test aren't valid to begin with.

Star Dog said:

We all fk up it's part of learning bur once you hone your method you'll be glad you ditched the soil.

Can i ask why a Wilma set up?
Just curious why you have picked that one?

Cheers SD

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I picked the Wilma because it can be modified, seeing some of the results people were getting, also being slightly easier to use than other forms of hydro.

Thebigyin said:

Yes I think your point about progressing to hydro rings true, I've just managed a couple of soil grows and now I'm giving the Wilma system a go, in the future IL probably try more hydro systems, no more soil for me although I'll have lessons to be learned doing hydro.

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Same! The hydro system is going much better than soil so far and would like to go with an extended hydro system for future grows. Lots of info to take in but seems to be worth the extra effort. I've heard/read that hydro lacks a more prominent taste/smell that you get with soil but I have no experience with that yet.

Skylander said:

Its all about personal preference. NO OFFENSE but most people aren't experts in both methods so most test aren't valid to begin with.

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Agreed. Definitely not an expert myself so I would not consider this scientific research by any means . It is pretty fun seeing the differences even with the short amount of time I've put in so far. Hydro will most likely be my only grow medium going forward

CannaOnerStar said:

Hydro will surely make bigger plants unless you fuck up somehow. Especially with autos when you have pretty much set time that they start flowering, the plants will benefit tons of the faster growth rate of hydro sure. However there might be some pheno variation, but it could be that small pheno in hydro would be same size than large pheno in soil, but large pheno in soil would take longer to finish. Who knows..

Im interested to see how it goes. Keep us posted!

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Will do! I'll get some pics out by the end of the week for sure

I have a few strains that taste much better in the soil. Just switching to organic and see if any different. Gets complicated having hydro going some in coco now some in organic.

I would say the two variables of this grow are more one bottled line against another with and without media than "Hydro vs Soil".
In general Hydro will blast off in growth vs the soil but come bloom time this becomes less noticeable.
The hydro plants will be bloated and full of water vs those grown on a true biologically nutrient available soil mix with proper watering cycles and dry back.
Come harvest the "soil" plants will loose much less volume to the dying process and have more pronounced terpene profiles.
Of cours your results will vary being that you are bottle feeding

myke said:

I have a few strains that taste much better in the soil. Just switching to organic and see if any different. Gets complicated having hydro going some in coco now some in organic.

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You can do organic coco passive hydro(autopot for example) using biotabs Im sure you could DIY some similar supersoil also, but biotabs are spec'd to autopots/passive hydro.

Just be aware that using only coco, after the basic stuff like bone meals etc run out, there isnt nothing to be broken down to nutrients from coco, so it might be better to use some soil in it if you do long veg with photos, just add more perlite or hydro corn and maybe go with the fabric pots. But you can also top feed with silicum flash(dry amendment) or their liquid nutes, which also have other food for the soil, or just add liquid nutes to reservoir.

sean8049 said:

Same! The hydro system is going much better than soil so far and would like to go with an extended hydro system for future grows. Lots of info to take in but seems to be worth the extra effort. I've heard/read that hydro lacks a more prominent taste/smell that you get with soil but I have no experience with that yet.

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Ive read about the prominent taste/smell thing growing in soil and I'm not sure if true or not, but I'm going to find out soon enough.

Anyone have an opinion on using mega crop all in one feed in the Wilma system?, with it being a dry powder and maybe clogging pipes and parts of the system.