Soil vs Hydroponics for Growing Cannabis

Soil vs Hydroponics for Growing Cannabis is the question? As the momentum of cannabis legalisation rises, many enthusiasts are starting to partake in growing cannabis privately. In a state where the law defended cannabis cultivation, growing cannabis at home legally became rampant, and growers have been at it. 

Growing cannabis at home for personal or commercial use can be done either indoor or outdoor, in which case you have to choose whether soil or hydroponics for your marijuana. As a grower, choosing between soil or hydroponics for your weed goes a long way in affecting the outcome of your result in terms of yield, quality, quantity, and growth speed. Before we go further into the prospect at hand, let's understand what soil and hydroponic growing mean!

Hydroponics & Soil Potency

What is Hydroponics?

Hydroponics is simply the cultivation of plants with a nutrient solution rather than in soil. The nutrient solution for hydroponics is a cultivation method that produces similar results to fertilizer for soil cultivation. Essentially, a hydroponic nutrient solution is a liquid solution filled with all of the necessary nutrients, which are directly dispensed to the plant's root to further its growth. Unlike soil, the hydroponic method of plant cultivation makes it easier to measure the adequate proportion needed by the plant in the liquid solution. What's more, the hydroponic method of cultivation allows for automation of most of the planting process. For instance, since hydroponic cultivation is mainly grown indoors, you'll need to be giving the plant the right amount of light, air, water and nutrients in an environment with the ideal humidity.

As you probably know, the soil is the bedrock of all plant life. It is where most plants grow and have been growing for millennia. Soil possesses many potentials to properly grow a plant because it has accumulated natural minerals and organic material that naturally grows plant life over time. If you're looking to grow your weed in an outdoor setting, it's best to choose a soil method of cultivation. 

Does Hydroponics Cannabis Grow Faster? 

With adequate equipment and proper maintenance of a hydroponics plant cultivation, your cannabis plant will grow faster. Thus, the additional oxygen and the nutrients absorbed directly by the roots of the cannabis plant makes it so. It is factually the fastest way to grow cannabis.

When growing your cannabis hydroponically, you leave the soil out of the equation and manually feed the plant enough nutrients. While doing this, you're able to dose the heck out of your cannabis plant while it's developing, thereby putting the control of the plant's growth entirely in your hands. Therefore, the yields from hydroponic crop cultivation are often much more prominent. While growing hydroponically, you have to be experienced in using hydroponic equipment.  

Which Form Of Growing Cannabis Increases Yield?

Well, when you want a larger yield for your cannabis cultivation, choosing between soil or hydroponics for your weed can be pretty challenging. One of the significant factors to consider is the labour and maintenance you can provide for both methods. It all depends on the growers' effort. Hydroponics method proves to turn in larger yields with adequate and proper care where the grower has to consider the following:

• Ventilation 
• Lighting (growing cannabis with LED grow light)
• Containers 
• Nutrient 
• Water pH level.

While growing in soil, the growers have to be available from time to time to take care of the crop by watering regularly as other requirements for its proper growth are provided by nature. However, testing the soil pH level is also essential. Soil cultivation is open to danger from pests and diseases, which can significantly affect the yield of cannabis cultivation and harvest. Hydroponics can suffer from less fatalities which makes this method safe and ultimately produce more profit than soil cultivation.

Soil Vs Hydroponics - Pros and Cons 

Hydroponic growing is a more recent trend which a lot of people are practising now. There are several benefits from growing hydroponically, such as:

• Easier nutrient management
• Bigger yield
• Faster grows
• Fewer diseases
• No pesticides & herbicides
• Less watering, 
• More plants in the same space and more control over plant growth. 

The disadvantage of growing cannabis hydroponically is that:

• The method is more expensive, 
• It may require more maintenance. You have to nurse the plant throughout the entire process because it requires constant human intervention to keep it alive. 

For soil, there are quite a few benefits it has over hydroponic growing, which are:

• Lower maintenance
• More tenderness guarantees a better taste of your cannabis
• Possibility to grow it completely organic 
• Soil growing is more forgiving when it comes to nutrients. 

As for the downside of soil growing, cultivation tends to be slower and risks being infested by pests and diseases. 

Is Soil or Hydroponics better for Cannabis? 

Coming this far, you'd have observed how hydroponic growing is superior to soil growing in one way or another. Hydroponic growing is preferable for growing your cannabis legally in your chosen location. Notwithstanding, whether soil or hydroponics for weed growing, you can still expect an excellent result as long as no prerequisite is overlooked. 

Opting for hydroponic growing, on the other hand, can be challenging if you're not experienced. Not to worry, if you have decided to go for hydroponics and have any complications while using or getting your hydroponics equipment, you can check here. Do it to enlighten yourself or for consultation on what you need to know about hydroponics supplies.

Grow Guru is a South African online hub specialising in distributing hydroponics supplies in and out of the country. They help by advising on providing hydroponics supplies, using them and how to start up, optimise, yield and grow economically. There are specific difficulties every grower might experience when setting up a hydroponic solution for cultivation. Sometimes, you might not have all the available information needed for a successful process. Fortunately, Grow Guru offers an explanatory guide on any subject concerning growing hydroponically.

Lastly, they offer premium services, especially for home growers. If you're looking to develop and establish your cannabis grow room or any crop at all, your solution is Grow Guru.

Conclusion

Both soil growing and hydroponic growing can prove efficient for growing your cannabis. Even as natural soil grows slower and runs the risk of contamination and infestation, hydroponic growing can only be managed when there are enough finances for the expenses and labour force to keep up constant maintenance.

So, both are good to go but looking at it logically; hydroponic cannabis growing is much faster and better. The not-so-tragic part is that a hydroponic cannabis plant needs a life-long caretaker until it's ripe for harvest. Whichever you choose, good luck with your growing process!