Should First Grow Be Hydro Or Soil?

Due to the fact that I am prepping for my first grow and will be aiming for success. I want to attempt a soil grow with a rubbermaid(30gal)set up(cfl's and fan included). I have roughly 200 seeds from bags that I've collected. I figured I'd seperate the best from the rest and begin my grow. But I'm also at a cross because I wanted to order some White Widow and AK 47. I want one helluva first grow, you know, like that first piece of pussy?! The response to this thread(collectively)will be my decision. Thanks to all!

Is to keep it simple! Go with good potting mix and bag seed. If you goof it up, you won't be kicking yourself until next Sunday because you just murdered $150 worth of seedlings! Or had to flush a mess of expensive, bacteria loaded nutes down the toilet!

Dirt is easier and plants have been growing in it for millions of years! Add a few worms to keep the soil healthy. If you see a wiggly worm or two when you transplant, all is well. If the worms are all dead- something is wrong.

And unless you make a habit of smoking dirt weed/ schwag, your seeds have good genetics! It is more of an adventure growing out bag seed. Indicas, sativas and all stops in between! :D

Your chances of getting a hermie are slightly higher with bag seed, but are you going to be a lazy grower, or one who checks their plants every day? The truth is, I have never gotten a hermie with bag seed, but I have with "name brand" seeds. And since I have my head in the closet on a daily basis, the hermies never had a chance to make unwanted seeds!

As for why not hydro- just read the threads! Ph problems, slime on the roots, parts per million,and all that jazz! :wtf: I'll stick to dirt! Simple and closer to natural. - Granny:hippy:

my plants grew wonderfully from bagseed, in fact, I never had a problem until I started growing high-dollar seeds ... I strongly suspect extensive inbreeding makes the 'designer-seeds' more sensitive to stress, etc (just my personal suspicions) ... either way, keep it simple, don't 'over-love' your plants ... it is a WEED, and is hard to kill ... but, we growers manage to kill them anyway, from over-doing water, nutrients etc ... ... just imitate nature, nature does not 'baby' the plants ... stay with soil grows for now ... I grew for 41 years in soil, and am doing my first hydro grow right now ... (it's a damned good thing I raised them in soil for a long time, because hydro is a whole new ballgame :wtf:) ... good luck :thumbsup:

I am with you guys , soil is so much easier and very low maintenance compared to hydro.

and get yourself a complete growguide...and just follow the yellowbrick road......:thumbsup:

- another vote for soil here

All my grows have been soil. I'm considering getting my feet wet on a small scale, but dirt is the shit. So to speak;)

Read the link in my signature.
A rubbermaid tub grow- completely contained WITHIN the tub, or using it as a DWC?
Go for compost n perlite.... good times.
I'm moving this to the growing section...

ok i will tell you a few things that made my first grow suck. first off you need a ec ppm meter. i have the blue lab truncheon meter and it works wonders. since i have had my meter no i have had no problems with feedings. second you need a good ph meter as well. i have an oakton meter which is doing a great job also. third get some hot shot no pest strips in your grow area. i had mites and gnats my first grow and they ruined everything. since ive been using the no pest strips i dont have mites or gnats. from my experience those things i listed are THE most important when starting a first grow. as for whether soil or hydro i go soil. if you use soil buy some fox farm ocean fresh soil and some fox farm light warrior soil and mix the two. your plants will love you because of it.

i went soil, its simple

You don't need an EC meter if you grow in soil.
It's much more forgiving.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stinkyattic

You don't need an EC meter if you grow in soil.
It's much more forgiving.

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Thanks stinky. I was thinking the same thing. That's the whole purpose of going soil so that I don't set myself up for failure with all the gadgetries.

Thanks to all! It's on and popping!

Soil baby soil you cant go wrong the first time with soil. Dont get that Miracle grow crap it sucks.

you NEED an ec meter in soil so you know how much your feeding your plants. i didnt have one and i was burning my plants then taking away the nutes and they had defeciences. trust me you WANT to know what your giving your plants.

I originally planned on never posting when registered on this forum. But I would like to tell you guy's thanks. I plan on starting my first grow next year but until then I'm soaking up a great deal of information here. Again thanks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by romdog11

you NEED an ec meter in soil so you know how much your feeding your plants. i didnt have one and i was burning my plants then taking away the nutes and they had defeciences. trust me you WANT to know what your giving your plants.

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well, thats not really true, as long as you use a mild soil, keep your PH in check thru carefull feeding and occasional flushing you wont go far wrong.

I've been growing without an EC meter... even in hydro... I took my source water to the hydro shop for a test to make sure it's not all hard and nasty, it's fine; now I go by the way the plants look.
Scorch? Flush the soil ones, back off on the nutes on the hydro ones.
Hungry? Feed em!
I'll be getting an EC meter for my hydro experiments when I have the cash, but for now everyone is doing aight. It's a necessity in hydro when you are dialing in the nutes for max yield.

I had my head in the dirt for the 1st. 15 yrs. I grew .

Try dirt first - if you have probs. or give up = your not out a ton of money . Look at all the used gear on ebay , either alot of ppl. give up real easy - or maybe alot of ppl. are good at this and they're hobby grows just as fast as their plants ?

I Been doing hydro for 3-4 yrs now and I still have never chkd. E.C ?
Peace
Crispi :jointsmile:

isnt your ec just another way of saying ppms? my meter has both ppms ec and something else i dont use. but it really helps me when im doing my ppms. i recently added big bud and i just added enough ppms to kind of kick in and i noticed it burnt it ever so slightly. barely even noticable but know i know that ppms with a much more potent thing like big bud is un necessary. but in your case stinky your just pro so people have an instict with plants. me no way. my first couple of grows the plants were feretelizer burned and showing defeceincys it was a mess. but this ec /ppm meter i have has personally helped me out a lot. i pin point my feedings.

i tried hydro before soil...BIG MISTAKE...the plant grew fine and i did everything right but its so much work......Soil is so much easier.....just water, light, timer, nutes DONE.. Hydro - change water/nutes, constantly measure PH, keep water temp down, pumps, tubes, airstones...too much nonsense.....it doesnt cut down your grow time to much. Soil is so easy and you get a great product the only draw back is their is alot of dirt around.

As a first time grower myself earlier this year I tried starting with hydro and I really regret not starting with soil first. Hydro requires a lot of daily maintenance and you really need to stay on top of the ph level. And forget about going out of town for even a couple of days. Simply said, soil growing is much more forgiving and easier to handle for noobs. After my initial hydro "experiment" I'm back with soil.

you could do hydro and probly pull it off, but id say do soil for firs gro so u get an idea of how it grows.

Soil Soil Soil thats what i did before trying a little hydro, I still keep a soil 1 though as it is more forgiving and if everything goes wrong with the hydro ill still have BUD, as has been said it stops high set up costs 2. As for seeds up 2 you i started with bought white widow and did well but i have later tryed some bag seed i got from some nice bud and dam it came out even nicer :D
Good Luck.

My first grow is a hydro setup and it is kicking ass and has not required a great deal of work on a daily basis. As long as my pumps are working and my timers are set properly I don't have any reason to check my plants. I haven't even tested PH in 3 weeks and things are ahead of schedule.

I have to leave on holiday for a week, I'll change my water before I go, raise my lamp 3 - 4 inches, protect my power supply to insure no blowouts or fires happen, and hope I return to a healthy lady. Based on everything that's happened so far I'm confident my absence will be beneficial to the plant not detrimental. When I get back I plan on leeching for 2 weeks, then harvest about 2-3 weeks ahead of schedule.

ill throw another vote for soil.
1st grow and it worked:wtf:
i even went outta town for 10 days and had a friend water once, thats easier than a pet.:wtf:

I like to do both hydro winter months and dirt in the summer months, could be just me the hydro seems to grow a lot faster, although it is more work checking nutes adding water it is a daily job but one that is satisfying.