Why would you grow in soil?

Chronic the Hemphog

Chronic the Hemphog

Well-Known Member
If you get a solid soil mix going you don't need to add anything but water. Sprinkle some more guano on top of the soil during flower and add nothing but RO water. Perfect buds, no fuss and no way of messing up unless you overwater. Yeah you won't get the mega yields from all the high end nutes, your harvest will take a little longer. But my grows were always 100% organic and smoked great.
 
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Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
chemphlegm said:
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.
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Octopots are Fantastic Sips,, several guys on here use them , its pretty amazing how many Water Roots get into the res, so you have Hydro Growth,
I am growing in an Earthbox, , the earthbox can now be purchased on the build a soil web site
the res in the earthbox is about 2.5 gallons and with my plants 5 weeks into flower i fill the res every 3 days
http://www.octopot.com/
https://buildasoil.com/
https://earthbox.com/
 
chemphlegm

chemphlegm

Well-Known Member
many have issues when starting with ff unfortunately. i see a pattern is all. some love the stuff. I dont keep it here. its good to har of users succeeding with it!
 
bryangtho

bryangtho

Well-Known Member
I have been growing for over 25 years and never used soil always coco. I did start off using rockwool blocks but been using coco for the last 20 years. But I do think you need someone to show a new grower to coco what to do. More just for the setting up and as they need a lot more feeding. It would be one of fast ways of growing for sure
 
Jaybodankly

Jaybodankly

Well-Known Member
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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Newbies seem to post more about pH/nutrients issues in hydro than soil issues. Over watering in soil is only possible with poor drainage and bad soil structure. Both these problems are easily fixed with 1/3 perlite per volume of soil. Using earthworm castings/earthworms (again 1/3) in the mix solves most problems. Earthworms as they move thru the soil aerate it and buffer the pH to neutral.
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
1- If you fucked up a soil grow you're trying too hard. Simple. Guys wanna tweak things that don't need tweaking. All sorts of teas and bubbled stuff, bottles of stuff with cool labels. On and on. They're all asking for trouble. KISS = letting the microbes do the work.

2- Soil tastes better. If you don't think so then you've not smoked much. It's a nearly universal opinion. Look around on any forum for the last decade. I'm careful about the food I eat, and just as careful about what goes in the Canna I ingest.
 
Bugeye

Bugeye

Well-Known Member
No free lunch, each method takes understanding and practice to become easy.

Soil is probably easiest IF you have proper structure and amendments, but learning what that looks like is a process in itself and takes time to do correctly. Most newbs are not thinking about their soil until after they plant and have an issue. The time to think about your soil is months before you plant!
 
Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
MickFoster said:
First let me stby 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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What nutes do you use? What pH pen? What tdds meter? Do you chill your res? Are you drain to waste?
 
Bugeye

Bugeye

Well-Known Member
A well dialed organic soil grow is so beautiful in its synergies between microbes, fungus and plant needs. Talk about perfection! Understanding how it all works together was mind blowing enough for me as to reawaken a spiritual belief in a higher power.

I don't buy into organic dirt grown being better, I just dig it for helping me understand the bigger picture of our existence. A handful of dirt is truly its own little universe. Cool shit!
 
MickFoster

MickFoster

Well-Known Member
Rrog said:
2- Soil tastes better. If you don't think so then you've not smoked much. It's a nearly universal opinion. Look around on any forum for the last decade. I'm careful about the food I eat, and just as careful about what goes in the Canna I ingest.
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Sounds like you're a bit upset brother. I'm not sure who you are directing this statement to - if it's me, please read my very first post.

Peace
 
MickFoster

MickFoster

Well-Known Member
Tim Fox said:
What nutes do you use? What pH pen? What tdds meter? Do you chill your res? Are you drain to waste?
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I use GH MaxiBloom with tap water. I don't use a pH pen - I've been using the drops for over 10 years. I don't own a tds/ppm meter - I go by the KISS method/Lucas Formula and charge my coco with 1/4 strength, then increase as needed. Coco doesn't have a res - it's drain to waste.
 
Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
MickFoster said:
I use GH MaxiBloom with tap water. I don't use a pH pen - I've been using the drops for over 10 years. I don't own a tds/ppm meter - I go by the KISS method/Lucas Formula and charge my coco with 1/4 strength, then increase as needed. Coco doesn't have a res - it's drain to waste.
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thank you, just trying to get a better idea as to your method of growing
 
dannyboy602

dannyboy602

Well-Known Member
Rrog said:
1- If you fucked up a soil grow you're trying too hard. Simple. Guys wanna tweak things that don't need tweaking. All sorts of teas and bubbled stuff, bottles of stuff with cool labels. On and on. They're all asking for trouble. KISS = letting the microbes do the work.

2- Soil tastes better. If you don't think so then you've not smoked much. It's a nearly universal opinion. Look around on any forum for the last decade. I'm careful about the food I eat, and just as careful about what goes in the Canna I ingest.
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Dam right. A typical consumer of Cannabis doesn't care how it was grown. They (we) only know how it tastes and smells when we smoke it, and by and large the best buds I've ever smoke were all soil grown.
If a grower prefers to grow coco over soil I frankly dgaf whether its easy for him or not bc as I said I'm only concerned with the taste of the buds so why wouldn't anyone who enjoys smoking only grow in soil ? Seems logical to me.
I mean, those processes that happen in soil have had 4.5 billion years to perfect themselves. Why fuck with something that works?

Edit: No offense to OP for growing in something else. Its your dream...you can do whatever blows your dress up
 
Tim Fox

Tim Fox

Well-Known Member
My current grow in the SIP has been to freaky easy, every 3 days I pour water down a pipe, no measuring just pour to the water line, , yawn, every few days i might raise the light, ( pull the rope click click) , trim a few leaves, snip snip
no Ph'ing water, no Tdds, no res temps, no measuring out nutes, no water temps or chillers, no pumps, no air stones, no flood drain tables,
just an exhaust fan and a single timer, now thats easy
 
maxamus1

maxamus1

Well-Known Member
The majority of my grows from my beginning was dwc and I loved it I am now trying soil just to have that experience and to also help with my outdoor garden. I must amit that I really miss my dwc system though.
 
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