Soil or Hydro

Can't decide whether to set up your indoor cannabis garden for soil or hydro? Perhaps this list of advantages and disadvantages can help answer some of your questions.

• Running costs for consumables aren't much different after the first crop
• Both take experience to manage fluently
• Both require mixing:
      For soil - amendments are mixed into the soil
      For hydro - nutrients are mixed into the water
• Good indoor sanitation practices should be followed with both
• Headroom needed is about the same considering pot sizes and reservoir dimensions
• Hardware for both is generally universally available at garden centers or home centers
• Both can produce poor tasting buds if improperly managed

Soil Advantages

• Fertilizers are universally available
• Less costly for initial setup
• Swift changes in nutrient chemistry usually don't occur, depending on care, but are difficult to correct

Soil Disadvantages

• Messy
• More likely to encounter pests
• Not well adapted for automated irrigation and long periods of unattended use
• No options are available for mediumless cultivation
• Growing medium is not reused, and needs to be replaced with each crop
• Requires larger pots and greater quantities of medium
• Medium quality or content (nutrient deficiencies/toxicities) are difficult to treat once in use
• Chemical imbalances take much more time to correct
• Growth rate is slower
• Often requires the addition of chemical fertilizers once soil begins running low on essential nutrients

Hydro Advantages

• Cleaner, better suited for use in the home
• Less likely to encounter pests
• Is well adapted for automated irrigation and long periods of unattended use
• Options are available for mediumless cultivation
• Growing mediums are commonly reused, and don't need to be replaced with each crop
• Smaller pots and less medium are used
• Medium quality or content (nutrient deficiencies/toxicities) are easy to control during use
• Chemical imbalances are instantly corrected by replacing the nutrient solution
• Growth rate is faster
• Additional supplementation beyond the nutrient mix isn't required, medium never runs low on essential nutrients

Hydro Disadvantages

• Fertilizers are usually found at specialty hydroponic sources
• More costly for initial setup
• Swift changes in medium chemistry can occur, depending on care, but are simple to correct

By definition, soil refers to an earthen growing medium (substrate) in which all the nutritive elements needed to sustain plant life are self-contained within the medium and activated by the addition of plain water. Hydro refers to a variety of inert growing mediums that can use a variety of irrigation methods in which all the nutritive elements needed to sustain plant life are self-contained within the water via the addition of a soluble fertilizer. Hydro can also refer to water culture, where no substrate of any kind is used. It can be important for the inexperienced grower to understand those simple differences because soil and hydro are both often viewed as meaning this method or that method (the singular), where hydroponics (the plural) actually refers to any one of several methods depending on which hydroponic growing medium and irrigation method one chooses.

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