soil or hydro for taste flavor?
- Thread starter chef_fiji
- Start date
Wastei
Well-Known Member
Yes and No. Depends fully on who you ask. There's no true answer. Properly grown Cannabis absolutely reeks in either method. Most strains I personally prefer in hydro, some in soil.
Wastei
Well-Known Member
applejuicer10
Well-Known Member
I mean..... Not really. I can grow to my heart's content outside with no legal issue. I grow inside because the level of environmental control is unreal compared to outside. I've also got a few bugs who would like a word.
If it's just security, why do commercial legal growers sell indoor for much more?
applejuicer10
Well-Known Member
So it's really hard to actually say one is more terpy than the other because they both have the same capacity to produce. The reason soil grows tend to be more terpy is because the microbes in soil help give the plant a more "full spectrum"feeding with less things missing.
In hydro you are in 100% control of what goes into the system. A lot of hydro growers go easy on the carbs to prevent bacteria in the res, but I think that ends up hamstringing them in terpines.
jcdws602
Well-Known Member
This is purely anecdotal but my soil grown has had richer flavors and smell. Does that mean soil grown has more terpenes? Or is it how those terpenes are produced which create a richer terpenes? This can be proven in a laboratory test that measures the amount of terpenes to some degree right ?
applejuicer10
Well-Known Member
So anecdotally, I've also had tastier plants from soil. Typically more smell means more terps. That's what terps are, volatile little smelly compounds. And yeah you can absolutely lab test terps, cheap too like$50 in my city for THC/terp test
Lucky Luke
Well-Known Member
IDK. Control is worth its weight in gold.
drsaltzman
Well-Known Member
It's the strain/pheno that dictates the flavors, not the medium.
Some people believe cannabis gets characteristics from terroir in the way that wine grapes do.
That may be, in the outdoors.
Inside though, there's no such thing.
Some people believe cannabis gets characteristics from terroir in the way that wine grapes do.
That may be, in the outdoors.
Inside though, there's no such thing.
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applejuicer10
Well-Known Member
Like I said, I think it comes more down to the trace nutrients that soil microbes provide that many salt nute lines might seem to miss. I think soilless/hydro have the same capacity for smell, a lot just miss it
Richard Drysift
Well-Known Member
Organic growing is sort of like snowboarding. Never seen a skier that switched to snowboarding go back to skis. Similarly you don’t see many organic growers go back to hydro. Usually it’s the other way around. You cannot beat the simplicity of a plant in a soil pot; you just water it. Couldn’t be easier...
Hydroponics is good for indoor growers looking for ROI; insanely good yields are the main reason for all the extra effort and energy spent imo.
Plants feeding themselves naturally through symbiosis w/fungi exhibit the full flavor profile of the given strain. Whatever is in the medium you choose to grow in will eventually be deposited into the flesh of the plants growing in it. This is why grapes from different regions make different vintages of wine. It’s the soil composition itself and the amount of rain that season that affects the flavor and sugar content, etc. of the grapes.
Maybe it’s because I always used cheap ass nutes but it seemed like no matter how well I flushed my hydro weed always had a weird taste. Once I switched to living soil I was so impressed with the quality of the end product for such low effort I never looked back.
It took an extended power outage to reach this decision: while all the plants growing in the aero rails died overnight the clones we had in soil pots survived by ambient sunlight. I bought a worm factory 360 and now I feed my plants mostly veggie and fruit scraps that would’ve gone into the trash anyway. I keep a few simple amendments on hand to recycle the soil over and over adding fresh worm castings each time; system is totally self sustainable.
Hydroponics is good for indoor growers looking for ROI; insanely good yields are the main reason for all the extra effort and energy spent imo.
Plants feeding themselves naturally through symbiosis w/fungi exhibit the full flavor profile of the given strain. Whatever is in the medium you choose to grow in will eventually be deposited into the flesh of the plants growing in it. This is why grapes from different regions make different vintages of wine. It’s the soil composition itself and the amount of rain that season that affects the flavor and sugar content, etc. of the grapes.
Maybe it’s because I always used cheap ass nutes but it seemed like no matter how well I flushed my hydro weed always had a weird taste. Once I switched to living soil I was so impressed with the quality of the end product for such low effort I never looked back.
It took an extended power outage to reach this decision: while all the plants growing in the aero rails died overnight the clones we had in soil pots survived by ambient sunlight. I bought a worm factory 360 and now I feed my plants mostly veggie and fruit scraps that would’ve gone into the trash anyway. I keep a few simple amendments on hand to recycle the soil over and over adding fresh worm castings each time; system is totally self sustainable.
PadawanWarrior
Well-Known Member
Great analogy. I grew up skiing and loved it more than anything. Well that is until I got my own snowboard. I haven't skied since.
Observe & Report
Well-Known Member
It takes a real controlled grow to compare soil to soiless. The amount of ions available in the root zone need to be controlled along with all of the other grow parameters. It's a lot harder than just growing a couple of plants side by side and sending a couple of nugs off to be tested. That's why it hasn't been done before and nobody really knows which is better. That, however, doesn't stop the bros from sciencing and claiming soil/organic is better.
PadawanWarrior
Well-Known Member
I broke my wrist my first time actually in 1986 when I was like 13. Very first run and all. I could instantly turn on my toeside edge and I was feeling cocky. Too bad I didn't know how to properly use my back edge and caught the frontside edge. Listing to Black Flag's In My Head on my Sony Sports probably didn't help.
So I got a cast and skied the rest of the year and a few more years after, before I got my own board. I learned how to fall though. I'm really good at it, lol. I've tripped a couple times in front of my family and they trip out on how it looks. They say it's like slow motion. When I know I'm gonna eat shit I just accept it and try to slow my impact and distribute the pain. Gotta Roll It Off.
jcdws602
Well-Known Member
An interesting read.