GROW OFF!! Hydro - vs- Soil - Hierloom Bubba Kush

Hey All!

In this thread , I will attempt to do my best to give an accurate and fair side-by-side comparison grow. I will post weekly updates with pictures and am just as interested as you are in finding out a few things. Although I have a few 'guesstimates' that I'll put out there just to see how many various opinions there are.

Most of my experience growing has been hydroponically , but I have grown a few times in soil in the past. I've done a lot of extensive research and reading, studying, and feel like I can make a pretty good attempt at it for the purposes of this experiment.

Below, I will break down all the details of the growing environment:

Light: 400w CMH

Hyrodoponic Nutrients:
General Hydroponics Flora line ( plus a few additives ). Feed at about .85 EC @ 5.9 PH. I will break down the actual feeding schedule details later.

• GH Flora Grow
• GH Flora Micro
• GH Flora Bloom
• GH Flora Blend
• GH Floralicious Plus
• GH LiquidKoolBloom
• Botanicare LiquidKarma
• DynaGrow ProTekt

Soil Mixture:
80% E.B Stone Edna's Best
20% Vermiculte/Pearlite mixture
Clone started in a 16oz cup, then transferred into a 1gal water jug, then stuck into a 5 gal Smart Pot

Below is info about the ingredients in the soil


Soil Nutrients:
I will use the same GH nutrient lineup mentioned above to supplement if necessary.

Ok, so the above is the baseline for the experiment. There are a few things that I am expecting/hoping going into this:

• I expect the hydro to produce more, but lack that "earthy" taste that I so dearly love and suspect that I will see in the soil grow.
• I hope the soil grow brings the earthy goodness that I love. I don't expect it to grow as big as the hydro.
• I expect the soil to be less of a hassle because I won't have to deal with res changes, cleaning and PH maintenance so much.

Here are the ladies on day 1 of flowering .

The Hydro side has been vegging using a .85 EC feeding schedule, while the Soil side has been fed only water straight from the Tap so far ( PH'd to 6.2 )

I am subscribed to this one, can't wait to see how things come out.
The Soil one looks happier but the hydro one looks denser. Hope you update us often.

TruenoAE86coupe said:

I am subscribed to this one, can't wait to see how things come out.
The Soil one looks happier but the hydro one looks denser. Hope you update us often.

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Thanks for riding along sir! I promise I will do everything I can to continue to update once a week over the next 60 days or so until the end.

Yea, the hydro one was a little unhappy at the time because she got power-sprayed with high pressure water about 5 mins prior to taking the picture. I've eradicated the mites, but I still take the precautions. I've also LST'd them a little to keep the tops at roughly the same height. Next set of pictures will show the LST'ing...they are looking happier now

looking foeward to this one, how do i subscribe, got it

Im pulling up a chair for this one.... This is going to be very interesting to say the least

Can you please explain the red solo cup on top of the soil? Cut the bottom out?

stuccodude said:

looking foeward to this one, how do i subscribe, got it

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smokey mcsmokester said:

Im pulling up a chair for this one.... This is going to be very interesting to say the least

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Thanks guys!!

smokey mcsmokester said:

Can you please explain the red solo cup on top of the soil? Cut the bottom out?

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Yea, I started the clone in a 1" rockwool cube, once it got roots, I stuck it into the red solo cup full of soil...then , you are exactly right...I cut the bottom out and stuck it on top of a plastic water jug which had it's top cut off and filled with soil...then when the roots started to hit the bottom of the jug I cut the bottom off that and put it into the 5gal Smartpot This seems to be the least traumatic to the plants ( at least for me ) since I don't have to completely transplant the whole thing into a different container

Merciless_One said:

Thanks guys!!


Yea, I started the clone in a 1" rockwool cube, once it got roots, I stuck it into the red solo cup full of soil...then , you are exactly right...I cut the bottom out and stuck it on top of a plastic water jug...then when the roots started to hit the bottom of the jug I cut the bottom off that and put it into the 5gal Smartpot This seems to be the least traumatic to the plants ( at least for me ) since I don't have to completely transplant the whole thing into a different container

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Awesome, basically gives your plant a stress free life allowing your roots to develop a strong foundation...

So the base root system lives in that cup for the entire grow? Seems like it would cause rot or some kind of expansion issue with the sides all enclosed

mrserv0n said:

So the base root system lives in that cup for the entire grow? Seems like it would cause rot or some kind of expansion issue with the sides all enclosed

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The bottom half of the cup is cut out...there are absolutely no issues with root rot or expansion. It's actually quite the opposite. The plants don't go into shock because there is no "transplanting". After cutting the bottom half of the solo cup off, the roots grow happily down into the 1 gal water jug full of soil. Then I cut the bottom of the water jug off once the roots start to ball up and I put the jug onto the 5 gal container full of fresh soil.

It's a non-standard method for sure , but it works great and allows for better use of the containers. You get the full volume of each container because they are essentially stacked on top of each other like a pyramid and the roots are always growing into fresh soil, so they have a good supply of built in nutrients with very little need to supplement with additional nutes

Subbed! Great idea merciless! I am getting ready to do a super soil run. I have been (am) Running hydro currently. Stoked to see the differrence in growth vs quality. Coming from hydro it is weird just hand watering shit but I like it way better so far. happy turkey

Can't wait to see the comparisons

Popcorn and a doobie.. I'm subbed!

johny1212 said:

Subbed! Great idea merciless! I am getting ready to do a super soil run. I have been (am) Running hydro currently. Stoked to see the differrence in growth vs quality. Coming from hydro it is weird just hand watering shit but I like it way better so far. happy turkey

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I agree..it's a bit strange for me to not feel like I have to check the res, ph, water levels etc on a daily basis with soil. Thanks for riding along and happy turkey day to you also!

flowa said:

Can't wait to see the comparisons

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Thanks! I'll be back with the first weekly update on Sat.

Chem Dawg said:

Popcorn and a doobie.. I'm subbed!

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Awesome! Thanks for tagging along. Spark that shit up and pass the popcorn

I hope everyone had a fantastic thanksgiving ( if you celebrate it ..if not..then I hope you had a great week anyways! ). I want to make a quick amendment to my original post....in the spirit of full disclosure. I did top a few of the branches on the hydro plant to take some cuttings...so that is why it appears to be 'bushier' than the soil grown one. So if anything...we can add that variable to the experiment as well: Does this particular strain produce more, less, or the same when topped. In all other aspects of this experiment, the two plants shown were taken from cuttings of equal size and vigor, and were taken at the same time from the same area of the mother plant.

So, the ladies have been flowering for 1 week now and are looking great. Not a whole lot to report just yet...but am starting to see a nice growth spurt and some signs of what's to come. I rotate each plant 1/4 turn daily so they get an even amount of light. Next week I will swap their positions so that the hydro is on the right and the soil is on the left.

Hydro: I've had to adjust the PH a few times during the week back to 5.9 and top off the res with fresh water. This is normal for me and not really much of a hassle. In 3 more days I will change/clean the res and add a fresh batch of nutrients.

Soil: I've watered once with tap water PH adjusted to 6.2 since the last time I posted last week...right now they are doing great and won't need watering again for another day or two. I still have not added any nutrients. I'm really happy with how low-maintenance this is...at least for now. The plant seems to be as healthy as it can be. We will see. I have had to deal with a small amount of little black gnats that seem to be harmless ( that's why you see the fly trap /strips )

Pictures are worth 1000 words, so I'll let the pictures do the talking. The plant to the left by the fan is the Hydro, the other is the soil. See ya'll next week!

Count me in...

Subbed, +rep.

KidneyStoner420 said:

Count me in...

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Awesome, glad to have you along

cannatricks said:

Subbed, +rep.

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Awesome, thank you so much!! I checked out your grow as well, very nice!!

Looking beauteous Merc!

I don't know how i missed you are using a cmh, love the color in there! I can't wait to be able to justify converting over......