Why would you grow in soil?

First let me start by saying that I have grown in soil, coco, rockwool, DWC, Waterfarms, and Hempy. It might be my imagination but I notice that most of the nute burn, deficiency, overwatering, etc. problems occur to usually newbies that grow in soil. People tell newbies to grow in soil first before they try other methods, because it's the simplest and easiest way to grow. I couldn't disagree more - I think it's one of the hardest to get dialed in. Now I understand there are many organic and non-organic soil growers out there that swear it grows the best tasting weed - and I'm sure it does - so I'm not trying to insult the soil growers - nor am I trying to persuade you to try something else. I congratulate you on your growing skills.

I currently grow in coco and in my opinion there is nothing simpler. Now if you are one of those people that don't enjoy watering every day or tending to your garden every day - then soil is for you.

Overwatering seems to be a common theme with newbies in soil. With coco - unless it's a small plant in a very large container - it's impossible to overwater. Nute burn, deficiencies, and pH problems can be corrected immediately with coco. Soil usually requires a good amount of flushing to correct the problem. With coco you are in complete control of what your plants eat. Plants grow quicker in coco, or any other type of hydro for that matter, than in soil. All it takes is quality nutes and a pH of 5.8 or so and you're good. There's nothing easier.

I typically grow the hempy method but I almost always soil cap my hempy gals.

I agree hydro is more work than soil, but it's my hobby so time spent is a non-factor for me.

I would encourage any rookie to try a hempy as it's an easy hydro method to learn....then venture into other hydro styles

Last year I started a journal called "KISS my Hempy" using the Lucas formula...about as elementary as hydro gets
https://www.rollitup.org/t/kiss-my-hempy.856645/

MickFoster said:

First let me start by saying that I have grown in soil, coco, rockwool, DWC, Waterfarms, and Hempy. It might be my imagination but I notice that most of the nute burn, deficiency, overwatering, etc. problems occur to usually newbies that grow in soil. People tell newbies to grow in soil first before they try other methods, because it's the simplest and easiest way to grow. I couldn't disagree more - I think it's one of the hardest to get dialed in. Now I understand there are many organic and non-organic soil growers out there that swear it grows the best tasting weed - and I'm sure it does - so I'm not trying to insult the soil growers - nor am I trying to persuade you to try something else. I congratulate you on your growing skills.

I currently grow in coco and in my opinion there is nothing simpler. Now if you are one of those people that don't enjoy watering every day or tending to your garden every day - then soil is for you.

Overwatering seems to be a common theme with newbies in soil. With coco - unless it's a small plant in a very large container - it's impossible to overwater. Nute burn, deficiencies, and pH problems can be corrected immediately with coco. Soil usually requires a good amount of flushing to correct the problem. With coco you are in complete control of what your plants eat. Plants grow quicker in coco, or any other type of hydro for that matter, than in soil. All it takes is quality nutes and a pH of 5.8 or so and you're good. There's nothing easier.

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things go wrong a lot quicker in hydro than in soil. soil acts a a buffering agent.most newbies problems occur in soil because newbies grow in soil. with the added work and complications of hydro newbies would have even more problems and failures.

mauricem00 said:

things go wrong a lot quicker in hydro than in soil. soil acts a a buffering agent.most newbies problems occur in soil because newbies grow in soil. with the added work and complications of hydro newbies would have even more problems and failures.

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I respect your opinion. I don't know what you mean by "things go wrong a lot quicker in hydro", could you explain. I agree that newbie problems occur mostly in soil because most of them grow in soil. That's my point - they were told to grow in soil by growers like you, citing added work and complications. I don't consider watering every day as added work and please explain the complications. I use the KISS Method and nothing is simpler or more foolproof.

I loved my flood and drains. lots of floods, not many drains.
I had a blast with them, blasted all kinds of fuses.
I appreciated the wet and dry cycle, and used a wet n dry vac often.

I exaggerated some, I know. it was fulfilling really once I became non cheap.
then in the corner of one of my tents I planted 3 five gallon pails of promix, 3 female #18's
with a four cup measure of organicare composted chicken manure. I fluffed it into the soil, soaked until it drained, and then fed one gallon of water when the hole in the side was dry soil at the bottom. 60 days of flowering returned me the best herb I'd used in all of my life. this was long after growing in my beloved hydro, finally issue free. I had side by side comparisons to do for months. I switched a few tents to dirt only, then quickly realized what a pain in the ass working with dirt was, indoors.
I built a large outdoor steel structure with rooms off the pages of high times mag, and although still had a couple dozen finishing in hydro, this was a dirt growers space, even have a cement mixer station for custom soil blending, really just massive promix/organicare preps. and the two rooms just for dirt. I wont go back. veg is a couple weeks longer, plants are happier.

if I was a commercial for profit producer i'd be growing in flood drains again---. dirt is dirty, heavy, dusty, on the plants, in the air, on me. working with poop seems gross growing meds. dirt is wasteful. dirt isnt clean, ever.

I love the terpene profiles afforded to me only when I grow in dirt. but admit if I could have found an organic bottled nutrient that was complete, and worked with hydro, I would still be growing hydro, just hydrorganic . I chronically use this herb, I wont trust its feed to a couple guys in a garage printing labels, no matter the size of the garage.

Being a newbie and a soil grower I'll chime in a bit. Soil is available everywhere, the other methods are not and hold a higher investment cost than soil does. I also tend to think that being in soil will expose a new grower to different problems that can be corrected giving the grower experience in diagnosing and fixing the problems. DWC I don't think you get the time to figure out what is wrong before it's too late to fix. Soil is also an easy way to get into LST because pots have a lip or easy to poke/drill holes into. While for an experienced grower or even someone who has a couple grows under their belt it probably is best to invest into soilless grows. But for a newbie I think soil is the way to. Even if you fail the grow you didn't send the extra cash.

As someone who is learning to grow it just seemed easier to use dirt. I would have to make the leap into the unknown with hydro and it's a bit daunting to a beginner. Seems more of a natural process for some reason too. Not in any hurry to harvest and quality is paramount. Team dirt for now!

MickFoster said:

I respect your opinion. I don't know what you mean by "things go wrong a lot quicker in hydro", could you explain. I agree that newbie problems occur mostly in soil because most of them grow in soil. That's my point - they were told to grow in soil by growers like you, citing added work and complications. I don't consider watering every day as added work and please explain the complications. I use the KISS Method and nothing is simpler or more foolproof.

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if you have to much or too little nutrients it can damage a plant a lot faster in hydro. PH is more critical in hydro as is water temperature.i'm not trying to start an argument with you. just trying to keep new growers from being mislead.

I grow in a SIP,,, its impossible to over water in a sip as the container self waters, using a wick process, its a Soil Hdro Hybrid set up,, dirt on the top and a res down below,, it combines the best of both worlds to me,, plus if your res is big enough, you only water every few days, some people ad nutes to their res,, some dont if using a quality no till soil , its really serving me very well

mauricem00 said:

if you have to much or too little nutrients it can damage a plant a lot faster in hydro. PH is more critical in hydro as is water temperature.i'm not trying to start an argument with you. just trying to keep new growers from being mislead.

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No problem - I enjoy a healthy back and forth and I respect everyone's opinion. I understand your concerns about hydro methods like flood & drain and dwc requiring more care regarding water temps and pH, but I was referring to growing in coco which is watered like soil except it's done daily. You will never have nute burn if you follow the lucas formula and start at 1/4 strength. And it's not necessary to be spot on with the pH - 5.5 to 6.2 is acceptable. Hell, I don't even own a pH meter, just use the drops. I appreciate your concern for newbies being mislead with bad information but there is nothing easier than coco.

Peace.

Soil sip or hempy is the easiest way to grow (and get good yields). Soil buffers.

Its interesting that some of the more bigger budget growers on this site are going back to soil. Consistency seems to be one of the main reasons.

If newbs use soil why did subcool create super soil?

mauricem00 said:

things go wrong a lot quicker in hydro than in soil. soil acts a a buffering agent.most newbies problems occur in soil because newbies grow in soil. with the added work and complications of hydro newbies would have even more problems and failures.

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There was a test video on youtube for a side by side with two types of lights. The indoor room was nice and they appeared to be professional. Part 1 sort of built the story and the Part 2 video would have shown the results.

The problem in Part 2 was a pump failed on their drip system or flood and drain (I forget which exactly) - all their plants died in about 1 day. I would guess at least 30 plants. Shit goes south very fast in variations of hydro or anything using pumps.

Most newbies find soil easy but it is not that easy. Most have no idea on what to do with coco or variations of coco. You miss a watering in coco it s not good either.

Better flavour end product

With coco you have do pH for water

I started with Sunshine Advanced #4 and found it pretty easy to dial in. Watered at 6.2, allowed plenty of runoff, nutes at modest strength, done. I'm switching to all coco and find it equally easy, nice drainage (with perlite mix), nice growth in fabric pots.

I read a lot of newb posts. In general I think many newb nute burn/def mistakes come from lack of research, and failure to "keep it simple." There's a ton of info out there, with concise guides like Grow Weed Easy's guides. Yet with all the data, you still see newbs disregarding basic things like pH or watering when needed. And many fail to keep in mind it's just a plant, they fall for gimmick products and such, making it harder than it is.

I haven't tried other methods.. I like soilless. Manage what goes in and enjoy

i grow in soil because the part of the world im from the closest hydro store is 5 hours drive away and hardware store is 15 minutes away amd a bag of good quality soil is $20 and a bag of perlite is $5 and the nutes i like are $10 i could get all the supplies to make a hydro system at the hardware store but would be spending upwards of tripple the cost plus dunno if hydro would work outdoor as thats where i grow never seen it done

Tim Fox said:

I grow in a SIP,,, its impossible to over water in a sip as the container self waters, using a wick process, its a Soil Hdro Hybrid set up,, dirt on the top and a res down below,, it combines the best of both worlds to me,, plus if your res is big enough, you only water every few days, some people ad nutes to their res,, some dont if using a quality no till soil , its really serving me very well

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Octopots do that for me, through the summer months. they rock my world. but handling water, wet dirt bags and such is a pain in the ass for me in the winter so I switch to 5g buckets for snowy seasons
the octos need water filled every 4/5 days, allows me to vacation!

I did put nutes in the res for some but decided not to later. I use promix, with organicare mixed i promix, once aflower onset, once at 30 day mark for a sweet harvest every time.

organic, use soil
bottled nutes, use a medium that works best with them, coco,peat,hydro

I am on my 3rd grow using coco, I used to use ffof and had some issues. It's a little bit of a learning curve and you need meters but man my girls have never looked better! Yes things can happen faster in coco/hydro but I like how fast they react to changes. Plus one 16 dollar bale of coco planted all 10 of my girls, would have taken 80 bucks worth of ffof.