Different systems of growing and their pros and cons?

Can someone who has grown in many different types of systems elaborate on this?
This is a question many newbies always ponder (like myself.) I hope this thread will provide insight into the different types of systems used to grow weed and the pros and cons that come along with them. This will help the beginner better choose the option that best suits them.
Peace and Blessings ~

I've done soil and hydro, soil is the best start for beginners, it's much more forgiving and you can make it really simple. Organics is the only way forward in soil, really, and it tastes and smells better than hydro bud, hands down.
Hydro is faster, therefore you will get a bigger yield in your allotted time frame but you have to get more equipment and be prepared to spend a lot more time checking and adjusting things.
IMHO DWC (Deep Water Culture) is the best hydro system, simple and fast, but everyone has their preference.
Search around on the forum for more in depth info on the different hydro methods, NFT, Flood & drain, and Wilma system are a few more to check out.
Lighting i've used CFL's and HID and HID is the only way forward for flower to get a decent yield of dense buds, the photons have more energy to penetrate through the canopy.
For growing techniques search SOG, SCROG, topping, FIMMing, LST and supercropping. Now I normally do topping/fimming early on and then tying them down (LST) around the pot, then supercropping anything that gets too tall. I have done side by side testing of LST on one of two identical plants and it near doubled the yield on the LST'd one. Topping isn't good for every strain but ones that are get very bushy.
Hopefully that will give you some more direction with research, I would be up all night if I were to catalogue every method and style of growing in detail for you!

I can't be bothered to read it back and check if there was anything obvious I missed right now... But if you have any less vague questions i'd be happy to go into more detail

Further notes: I wasn't implying you couldn't yield nice bud from CFL's i'm sure there's some people here who would deffo argue otherwise, but for anything more than 1 proper sized plant I don't really see it happening! That said - if your space is gonna be 40C during lights on with HID or 26C with CFLS you gotta go CFL!

By Wilma systems I meant dripper systems, Wilma is a brand name. They might also do a dripper/flood and drain system i'm not sure.

Strains that are are not good for Topping/fimming are 'Christmas tree' strains, ie ones that tend to be just one big cola straight up, you can still tie these down with LST though.

Most growers agrees that an even canopy maximising bud sites within the given floor space is optimum to get the best yields of similar, high quality buds, it just depends on how you wanna get there and what your limitations are (ie floor space, height, plant count, light, air flow, humidity).

Oh and don't defoliate!

I like soil because I don't have to babysit it like hydro. With soil I can be gone away from home for quite a few days with no issues. With hydro everytime I came home from a weekend trip my PH was off which negatively affected my plant. Soil is easy.

Yeah exactly. I have pH and EC meters for work but I love not having to worry about any of that with my soil, just feed it some brown poopoo smelling organics as per dosage instructions and let it do its thing!

Ill take a crack at it.

soil is hands down the easiest because everyone learns to grow stuff in elementary school ... plant seed and water nutrients are already provided. Soil naturally contains beneficial bacteria and amino acids in the soil growing naturally so it also provides a good base for resin production in plants. Air and nutrients in soil tho are limited and unfortunately you get slower then optimal growth and therefore less output in the same time frame in soil but the plants will generally be of better quality from higher resin production.

hydroponics is on the exact other end it is simply the basic components needed to grow and tons of air to the root zone. air in the root zone allows for higher metabolic funtion in the plant causing fast growth and acceptance of higher quantities of nutrients. The lack of natural amino acids and excess organic components in hydro cause it to produce less resin/glandular and terpenes and what not. So yes you grow more bud but unless supplemented with these additives produces less quality buds reducing flavor... this is why hydro tomatoes taste like water. in sub catagories the most amount of air to root zone the less chance of pythum and most amount of metabolic function. so in order of growth rate and yield -> Fogponics -> High pressure aeroponics -> low pressure aero -> Deep water culture -> NFT/Flooded tube -> drip

Then there is in my opinion the more advanced hydroponics (aquaponics) using fish and organic waster to grow and balancing a full ecosystem. This way produces high growth through optimal metabolic function while also producing compounds to increase quality such as high amount of amino acids. Also keeps a complex web of organisms populated in the root zone providing pythum protection in high temperatures. By increasing temps in the root zone as well as air we can get the highest metabolic function and growth of all as well as quality. The unfortunate trade-off is cost to operate. While hydroponics needs a 30$ bottle of nutes for 6 months aquaponics require predatory fish and herbavore fish to round out the nute production which can cost up to 100-200$ a month in high quality food (live and pellet).
In order of growth rate and yield -> High pressure aero -> Low pressure aero -> DWC -> flooded tube style ->drip

While we all learned to grow a plant in dirt, I dont think it is the easiest. A 100% perlite Hempy bucket with a basic feed schedule like the Lucas formula is the simplest thing I have done by far, is cheap as hell, and produces great. Dirt is great as long as you dont have a problem but a newbie in dirt gets a problem and it could be 1 of 20 different things, a newbie running a lucas hempy can fix a problem almost instantly by doing a simple flush and a easy feed. Only negative is you will water every other day in a hempy, no biggie. Experienced growers who grow organically have the best bud around, I did it once indoors organically and il never do it again, amazing taste but dealing with bugs and the rotten rhinocerous ass hole smell coming from the tent got old real quick.

I agree with Jbone 100% ^^ My 1st couple were soil (roots, FFOF) in 3gal air-pots. I had newbie issues through each grow. Switched to 3/1 hempy's in 1gal buckets and got plants just as big that produced more. Little to no issues. In hempy I used the same powdered nutes that I used in soil. I water/fed every 1-2 days compared to soil water every 2-3 days and feed once a week. I used tap water for both and the biggest difference was I bought a PH meter.