Hydro vs. Soil
Being a "soil guy" myself, I finally decided to try hydro after succumbing to peer pressure. Here's an updated comparison and my personal thoughts.
Test Subjects:
God O War and Moontang Mystery. All seeds were soaked and started all together.
Time:
Soil - The majority of seedlings were planted into soil 27 days ago. A few were planted into soil 23 days ago because I chose last minute not to put so many into the F&D totes.
Hydro - The seedlings were placed into the F&D totes 23 days ago.
Overall plant growth:
While plants do in fact grow quicker in hydro, it's not nearly as much as I had envisioned prior to testing them side by side for myself. Granted this wasn't a planned testing by eliminating the controlled variables such as start times, it's close enough for me to start formulating my own personal opinions.
Height:
While the plants grow taller in hydro, it's not nearly as noticeable when comparing it to soil at first glance. However after measuring, the tallest plant in hydro is 19.5" and the tallest in soil is 14". The shortest plant in hydro is 12" compared to 9" for the soil shorty.
Stalks:
One of the most notable differences are stalk girth. The stalks in hydro are vastly more robust.
Leaves:
Another very notable difference is the overall size of the fan leaves. The fan leaves in hydro sit around 8.25-8.5" while soil averages 5.5". Think of a soil fan leaf as sitting in your palm while the hydro fan leaf covers your palm.
Lateral branching:
While lateral branching was present across the test subjects, they're definitely more developed in hydro at this stage in the game.
Early determinations:
I really do like hydro so far. I do like being able to monitor and micro manage the grow. It satisfies my OCD and having a reservoir vs. watering every day or two is a huge perk. However it is rather expensive for me based on how I would want to run things. For example, I'd personally want a Bluelab Guardian dedicated for each reservoir. That alone will get costly if I choose to do a full changeover. I've considered different hydro systems and set-ups and at the cost of additional equipment, I'm not convinced just yet that a full changeover to hydro is worth the gains. Granted I'm still in veg. Flower and or harvest may sway my opinion, but at this juncture I don't foresee it.
Early conclusion:
Regardless of harvest, hydro will remain in my garden to some capacity. I'll keep the 2x4 set up with the F&D totes and I'll dedicate a space in the flower tent for hydro. I'm strongly considering a Flora Flex style set up for the other half of the flower tent after seeing it described in
@Heisenbeans video. The Flora Flex style system seems like a soil/hydro hybrid. I like that it uses a reservoir, automated watering, drain table and recirculated water. Anything that saves time without consequence is a huge perk for me personally. I'll continue to keep the veg rack dedicated to soil, and I can transfer them to the flora flex system when they're ready for flower if I end up going that route.
Hydro: Day 23
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God O War
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Moontang Mystery
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Soil: Day 23-27 respectively
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