Hydro vs soil

[mojuan]

just had a conversation with the kid kinda went like this.
hay dad, it would be easier if we went hydro, you already have the flood trays and reservoir, they just fill up then drain back into the reservoir, me: oh yea, it would be easier to water, BUT!
i know there are going to be hydro vs soil people on here and i don't want to start a long drawn out discussion, I'm trying to do a pro's and con's list I've only been growing since november so i dont know nuttin. he just bought me a book and I've only read 1 book in my life.
how about a automatic watering system for soil instead of full blown hydro no soil. i know there is more options, like a hybrid watering setup in soil? just asking

 

[No Pain]

just had a conversation with the kid kinda went like this.
hay dad, it would be easier if we went hydro, you already have the flood trays and reservoir, they just fill up then drain back into the reservoir, me: oh yea, it would be easier to water, BUT!
i know there are going to be hydro vs soil people on here and i don't want to start a long drawn out discussion, I'm trying to do a pro's and con's list I've only been growing since november so i dont know nuttin. he just bought me a book and I've only read 1 book in my life.
how about a automatic watering system for soil instead of full blown hydro no soil. i know there is more options, like a hybrid watering setup in soil? just asking

Well the first thing that Im going to say is im not a soil guy , Im a hydro guy always have been ...Its probably because there is more tools and stuff to play with . Anyway as far as pros or cons ..I would suggest you tell us what pro's and cons you see in both and we can probably shed more light on the subject also tell us what your ture objective / end game is.
as far as an automatic watering system for soil ...I am going to tell you that your mind and imagination is your true limiter in either hydro or soil .

 

[mojuan]

I enjoy the time I get to water but sometimes I have to make time. And sometimes I'm out there like you said, my imagination runs wild trying to build a better mouse trap when someone else has already done that.from grow 1 to grow 2...... let's just say better. I'm just learning and "At least I'm enjoying the ride."

 

[TorturedSoul]

Hmm...

1. Add H₂O₂, <BAM!> sterile reservoir (bonus: decomposes and O₂ is one of the two products that results from the decomposition, and that's rocket fuel to the roots).

2. Add LOTS of aeration, along with strong fans, and your plants are now bulletproof. Well, lol, obviously not - but this facilitates transpiration, which is the best defense against "extreme temperature events."

3. You know exactly what you're actually feeding your plants, because there's nothing else in the root zone other than water.

4. I'd rather carry in empty 23-gallon totes (or whatever size) and fill them in the grow room than carry in 23-gallon's worth of heavy soil.

5. If not in a legal region (or if you just don't want neighbors and passersby knowing "what's up"), it's a lot more clandestine to carry in a few jugs in a plain brown box than to carry in a few jugs in a plain brown box... and bags and bags of soil/etc., which you then have to carry out again if/when you replace it all for the next crop.

6. Theoretically (and, for the most part, in practice) gives faster rate of growth - and what's the downside of that, lol?

7. Some insects "go to ground" for part of their life cycle. But I'm guessing that the little sh!ts can't swim, LMAO.

8. Soil tends to have a "buffering" ability. Think that's a good thing? Hmm... See an issue? Okay, which of the 23 things you've done recently caused it? Water lacks this buffering ability. Ergo, see an issue, it was caused by the last thing you did. And the flip-side of this coin is: See an issue, make correction, immediate results (because, again, water has no buffering ability).

9. Most hydroponics nutrients don't smell like dead animals .

10. The sound of mad aeration is relaxing (ever notice that an aquarium can soothe you even when you're not looking at it?).

11. I dunno, try them both (you've already tried one) and see which one you prefer. Just be aware that there's going to be a very slight learning curve, due to some few differences. Example: The pH "sweet spot" is different. No big deal, just something to be aware of. I'm assuming that you're already reasonably proficient at cannabis gardening in general.

It may be helpful for you to go to...
Completed Journals
...pick out a few grow journals that catch your eye for whatever reason, and read or at least skim through them so you can both observe a few(?) hydroponic grows and imagine yourself as the gardener in them. I'm suggesting the completed journal section for a reason: You can, right now, see everything all the way up to harvest instead of having to allow for the passage of time (and most folks will still answer members' queries posted to their completed journals, so you still have the option of asking questions and a reasonable expectation of getting an answer).

The ongoing journals are cool, too, of course. It's just... Well, I was never a fan of reading three books in a series and then having to wait for book #4 to be published, nor did I find myself (when I still owned a functioning television) especially fond of waiting for the off-season to pass and the next series of the television show to air.

I even (generally) recommend hydroponics to virgin growers. I feel it facilitates learning to understand one's plants and what changes cause what effects (see #8, above).

There's also... Well, many people consider it to be three "methods" of growing (hydroponics, hempy, and soil/soilless). But it's actually just two, because hempy is just passive (hand-watered) hydroponics. That's an option, too. There's a huge "hempy" thread.

In case you were not aware, hempy is just a container with no drainage holes that someone has made a hole in down relatively low in the side and filled with some sort of (hopefully) inert media. pH is as per hydroponics (because, again, that's what hempy is). People use perlite, coco coir, a mixture of the two (often a lot of perlite with a little bit of coco) or, occasionally, perlite with vermiculite. Pure perlite works just fine, but it doesn't have the "wicking" ability that the other two substances have, so the top portion of the container might not wick up the solution from the portion below the hole (which serves as the reservoir) all the way to the top. Which is not a problem, because roots will obviously grow downward towards the nutrient solution (and the rate of such growth will explode once the first root tip reaches the solution, wherever it be). However, it can mean that young plants with no real root system require a bit more care initially, for you are "supplying them directly," so to speak, when you water with nutrient solution.

<SHRUGS> That's about it, lol. Again, whatever ends up working best for YOU, because you're the grunt (labor) in the equation, yeah? But you'd need to try them both in order to make that determination.

 

[Nunyabiz]

Also depends on what soil you're referring to.
A regular old pot of basic potting soil and bottle feeding.
Or a Living Organic Soil, probiotic, KNF, no-till type soil grow.

I think the general consensus is that if you want the best quality you go with a LOS grow.

You could also do a Hydro-Soil grow in Coco.

 

[TorturedSoul]

OOPS! I meant to include a link to the hempy thread I mentioned. Here you go:

Hempy Headquarters

Ultra Dawg (Day 86, flip + 18) I potted up a clone of Thin Mint GSC today, the latest of my hempy plants, and dropped a new seed in another hempy cup, a Blue Dream, the genetic product of MagicJim's talented hands. :battingeyelashes: :Love: I'm hoping I can make the Blue Dream as healthy...

www.420magazine.com

Books are great (at least I think so, lol, but I started reading at age 3). But "learning by watching" has its place, too. Check out some journals - maybe enough to see the various types of hydroponic methods (DWC (Deep Water Culture, a bucket / tote / et cetera full(ish) of nutrient solution along with aeration device(s)), Flood & Drain (aka "ebb and flow," which is pretty much exactly as the name suggests), Drip (nutrients flow slowly from feedlines on top of the medium), passive (like hempy - or the famed Hanging Gardens of Babylon - yes, hydroponics has existed in one form or another longer than modern civilization has).

After having done so, I bet you'll have a lot of questions, and they'll be much more specific ones, because you will have expanded your knowledge base significantly by that point in time. Or maybe you will have managed to answer most of your questions by then.

Hydroponics, as a general thing, can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. From the simple (hempy - or even just a traditional plant container full of gravel that you water by hand, although with no reservoir you'd be doing so quite often before you're ready to harvest the forest) all the way up to a more or less completely automated setup with auto-dosing pH adjusters and nutrient components. You could grab any old (clean!) bucket, drill a hole in it a couple inches up, mix some Osmocote Plus into enough perlite to fill the bucket, stick a plant in it, and water it every day or three. You can build an active hydroponics setup yourself after visiting a hardware and/or department store for materials, or you could buy... well, lol, however much money you have, you could spend anywhere from hardly any to "sign at the bottom of this loan application, please."

 

[TorturedSoul]

I think the general consensus is that if you want the best quality you go with a LOS grow.

That's certainly the consensus of the subset of the gardening population who follow that method.

In other words, that's a pretty subjective statement, IMHO. Just like Android users will often tell you their phone's OS is the best, while owners of Apple cell phones will tell you that... whatever it uses, iOS I think is the best.

That's one of the reasons I suggested looking at grow journals that (together) cover several different types of methods. I can't think of anyone (who has been using whatever method they happen to follow for any real length of time) who'll tell you that they believe their particular method is crap, lol.

EDIT: Nunyabiz, please don't think I'm singling you - or your chosen method of growing cannabis - out. I'd have posted the same thing in regards to such a statement regardless of who made it or what specific method they were championing. It's great to be a fan of our chosen way of doing a thing; it's just not the most helpful thing (IMHO) when someone who doesn't have any real familiarity with multiple methods is asking about them. Again, in my honest opinion.

BtW, an expert at one way of doing a thing can end up producing better results than someone who's lousy (lazy, inept, et cetera, pick your own adjective) at a different method, even if that latter one is, technically, superior. They can also have more fun (which tends to be part of the reason for their success).

 

[mojuan]

You got the grunt part right. It's all a good idea till the lifting starts. May have to check out your grows and a few others like you said. I got nuttin but time. Thanks for your input. Newbies like me need shit to think about. Lol

 

[Nunyabiz]

That's certainly the consensus of the subset of the gardening population who follow that method.

In other words, that's a pretty subjective statement, IMHO. Just like Android users will often tell you their phone's OS is the best, while owners of Apple cell phones will tell you that... whatever it uses, iOS I think is the best.

That's one of the reasons I suggested looking at grow journals that (together) cover several different types of methods. I can't think of anyone (who has been using whatever method they happen to follow for any real length of time) who'll tell you that they believe their particular method is crap, lol.

EDIT: Nunyabiz, please don't think I'm singling you - or your chosen method of growing cannabis - out. I'd have posted the same thing in regards to such a statement regardless of who made it or what specific method they were championing. It's great to be a fan of our chosen way of doing a thing; it's just not the most helpful thing (IMHO) when someone who doesn't have any real familiarity with multiple methods is asking about them. Again, in my honest opinion.

BtW, an expert at one way of doing a thing can end up producing better results than someone who's lousy (lazy, inept, et cetera, pick your own adjective) at a different method, even if that latter one is, technically, superior. They can also have more fun (which tends to be part of the reason for their success).

Pretty much all true to a point.

Yet I've never had a hydro green house tomato taste even remotely as good as one grown in soil.
Personal preference I guess.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Could be. On the other hand, I've gotten the impression that a lot of those operations are strictly concerned with production numbers. I believe that a gardener who approaches the task as a craftsman, rather than as a factory worker, can produce great... produce with pretty much any method. It's entirely possible that the might be something - an element, mineral, what have you - that is generally present in soil grows that may not routinely be present with the "this is all we NEED to pay for in order to produce just a tomato" crowd, though (as opposed to a tomato that one actually wants to eat, instead of merely something one does to fill the hole in one's belly). I remember years ago reading several research papers having to do with growing plants with minimal nutrients. Minimal in types, not just in quantities. I thought, "Why, then, add all the various nutrients and micronutrients that we do?" Followed quickly by, "Gee,I wonder if the fruits and vegetables in those studies were at all palatable," lol.

But my opinions are largely subjective, too. I suppose we will all, each and every one of us, carry some non-zero amount of bias where something is concerned. It's human nature, methinks (my phone's virtual keyboard knows "methinks," bit I had to tap in the letters for opinion - go figure).

 

[TorturedSoul]

Editing is a pain when I'm not using the laptop, so I'll use this additional post to add:

Those studies seemed to all basically be like... start with very few nutrients (as in a couple or a few elements) and see if the plant grew.

I don't know if anyone used the approach of having a quantity of soil that had been COMPLETELY analyzed as to nutritive content, grown a fruiting plant in it, and then afterwards performed another complete analysis in order to discover what was used (and what waste products the plant excreted via its root system).

 

[Barney86]

Hydro vs soil.

Hydro issue -needs nitrogen
Solution- Add nitrogen.

Soil issue- needs nitrogen.
Gotta go buy some soil a d let some worms spend 6 months mulching away at it. Then use that to make a tea to put into your original soil and the tea will grow clovers. Once those clovers have grown, maybe 2 or 3 years later, their root secretions will provide nitrogen.

Yeah ok I maybe went a bit far there but it is something like that.
Point is though, you really need to be clued up to do well in soil. It's not easy. Hydro is an absolute doddle.
Just following numbers on magic sticks like a monkey.
Number goes up add more water.
Number goes down add more nutes.
All there is to it really.
takes a few weeks till the pennies drop and you get your head round all the gibberish and see how simple it is but once that happens you just fill a res. Check it and forget it for a week.
No guessing how much or what strength. The ppm meter tells you how strong to make it and the system feeds the plant perfectly for you. Folk freak out about dealing with ph but if you set the res right it'll last a week. At which point you need to change the res anyway so all good

 

[Weaselcracker]

One main downside to running hydro is having to constantly monitor PH, which can be a real pain in the ass. Sure- it’s not rocket science- But it’s absolutely necessary and if you screw up or your instruments screw up then your plants will take a sharp turn downwards towards hell. Also hydro just doesn’t have that big buffer zone that soil does. If your power goes out or equipment breaks and shuts down -you’re in trouble fairly soon. How soon depends on what style of hydro you’re using. Myself I don’t go full hydro- it’s too dependant. I’m away a lot, I get lots of power outages, I don’t have stores to buy new equipment if something breaks- I’d be f’d.
In soil your risk of bugs is higher. It’s dirtier. It’s less immediate and harder to know what your plants are actually getting. Soil mixes are like magical spells out of a witch’s handbook. It’s not always easy to find meteorite powder and pickled newt extract in my area.
In hydro you’re completely playing God, in soil you’re more like God’s super incompetent helper.

 

[Barney86]

One main downside to running hydro is having to constantly monitor PH, which can be a real pain in the ass. Sure- it’s not rocket science- But it’s absolutely necessary and if you screw up or your instruments screw up then your plants will take a sharp turn downwards towards hell. Also hydro just doesn’t have that big buffer zone that soil does. If your power goes out or equipment breaks and shuts down -you’re in trouble fairly soon. How soon depends on what style of hydro you’re using. Myself I don’t go full hydro- it’s too dependant. I’m away a lot, I get lots of power outages, I don’t have stores to buy new equipment if something breaks- I’d be f’d.
In soil your risk of bugs is higher. It’s dirtier. It’s less immediate and harder to know what your plants are actually getting. Soil mixes are like magical spells out of a witch’s handbook. It’s not always easy to find meteorite powder and pickled newt extract in my area.
In hydro you’re completely playing God, in soil you’re more like God’s super incompetent helper.

But I like playing god! Mwahahahah!
That's why I think hydro is easier though.
No guessing anything. There's nothing there that I don't know exactly what it is.
If something goes wrong you just add whatever in or take whatever out.
Ph should last a week in range no problem. If it doesn't the feed is the wrong strength.
The answer to your particular scenarios of power outages etc and everything else actually, is autopots and coco. Fully automated bottom feed system with no need for power other than a small airstone which won't kill your plants if it dies. Just to keep the res from stagnating. The plants don't feed directly from the res iether so it never needs adjusting
The ultimate lazy gardeners tool and it's just as effective as any hydro system going. Seen some scary results from them. 700g autos done in 15L of coco and stuff like that. Crazy good way to grow and can't get any easier.
They're next on my hit list of things to try.

 

[61FALCON]

I am currently doing dwc v's organic soil & feeding for my current 1st grow. I am currently at day 55 from sprouting (flipped on day 51) and both are doing well. I am actually surprised how well the soil plant is going against the dwc. I thought the dwc would be kicking the soils but.
Will be interesting to see if the soil plant can keep up once the flowers start.

 

[NuttyProfessor]

hydro for bulk , soil for quality

 

[Pinktiger777]

Hydro vs soil.

Hydro issue -needs nitrogen
Solution- Add nitrogen.

Soil issue- needs nitrogen.
Gotta go buy some soil a d let some worms spend 6 months mulching away at it. Then use that to make a tea to put into your original soil and the tea will grow clovers. Once those clovers have grown, maybe 2 or 3 years later, their root secretions will provide nitrogen.

Yeah ok I maybe went a bit far there but it is something like that.
Point is though, you really need to be clued up to do well in soil. It's not easy. Hydro is an absolute doddle.
Just following numbers on magic sticks like a monkey.
Number goes up add more water.
Number goes down add more nutes.
All there is to it really.
takes a few weeks till the pennies drop and you get your head round all the gibberish and see how simple it is but once that happens you just fill a res. Check it and forget it for a week.
No guessing how much or what strength. The ppm meter tells you how strong to make it and the system feeds the plant perfectly for you. Folk freak out about dealing with ph but if you set the res right it'll last a week. At which point you need to change the res anyway so all good

Barney, Barney, Barney. Forget it for a week??? LOL. If I had followed that advice on my hydro grows, I would have come back to a dead tent many times. Hydro is what I do. It is what I have always done. But I'm not trying to sell anyone on it; I just want to say it requires diligence. I check my tents when they "wake up" in the morning, and once more before they go to lights out. I measure my ph and keep it in the zone. I don't freak when it goes above 3.95, but I add ph down when it goes over 6. For example. Water level alone in a week's time would not be good. My babies drink a gallon a day, and it is a 10-gallon reservoir.
To address hydroponics as a method, a grower should consider the following:

1. The cost of the equipment and the nutrients. This can be staggering unless you are a savvy Do it Yourself type. Many on these forums fit that description, but I do not. LOL. I spent well over a thousand altogether, getting started. Now I have two tents and grow perpetual, and the cost is ongoing. Not as bad as the initial investment, but equipment wears out; lights, fans, filters, timers, etc.
2. The transport ease of bringing water to the grow and taking it out again. For me, a breeze. For others, maybe not. I have access to outdoors from my grow, so i can string a hose up to hook the pump to and empty the tank. After cleaning, which is a big deal and takes an hour or more weekly for each tent, I fill it up with gallons of water I have stored. The work is intensely physical in this sense; I'm 68, and have had two back surgeries. I can do it, but later I have to take pain killer in intense quantities.
3. You will need a good knowledge base. Congratulations! You are in one of the best bases of knowledge on the Internet. Get to know it and any other forum about hydro. Growing in a controlled environment, such as a tent or grow room, is different from growing in a window or the yard. Contamination in a grow tent will have little, if any defenders keeping it in check. And hydro has all the stuff a pest loves: water, air, light and food. So it is important that you know infection control techniques and prevent transporting or fostering mold, bacteria, insects and anything else you don't want growing there.

So I'm not trying to turn you off of hydro. I love it. The plants flourish and grow quickly. Because I have one grow ready to take over the flowering tent following harvest, I am able to harvest every three months. It's enough for my personal use only, but that is OK. I've been able to play around a little with different techniques. I've had some failures. But I have persevered! LOL. After three years of experience, I finally feel (almost) comfortable enough with the grow to leave it for a day now and then. But never more than overnight.

 

[Weaselcracker]

I grow in soilless- peat moss, perlite, coco, etc. For three years up until last year I spent weekdays living, working, and single parenting in another town a couple hours drive away, and would only be home to the grow on weekends. It was a very weird way to grow, but it all worked out fine for that whole time. Amazingly well considering how little I was there and how little time I had when I was.
I’m not saying I couldn’t have done this with a full-on hydro system- but there would have been more things to go wrong. As long as the plants were watered on the weekend then I could be pretty sure they’d be alive in some form the next one- even if all my lights and equipment exploded or shut down completely.

 

[Barney86]

Barney, Barney, Barney. Forget it for a week??? LOL. If I had followed that advice on my hydro grows, I would have come back to a dead tent many times. Hydro is what I do. It is what I have always done. But I'm not trying to sell anyone on it; I just want to say it requires diligence. I check my tents when they "wake up" in the morning, and once more before they go to lights out. I measure my ph and keep it in the zone. I don't freak when it goes above 3.95, but I add ph down when it goes over 6. For example. Water level alone in a week's time would not be good. My babies drink a gallon a day, and it is a 10-gallon reservoir.
To address hydroponics as a method, a grower should consider the following:

1. The cost of the equipment and the nutrients. This can be staggering unless you are a savvy Do it Yourself type. Many on these forums fit that description, but I do not. LOL. I spent well over a thousand altogether, getting started. Now I have two tents and grow perpetual, and the cost is ongoing. Not as bad as the initial investment, but equipment wears out; lights, fans, filters, timers, etc.
2. The transport ease of bringing water to the grow and taking it out again. For me, a breeze. For others, maybe not. I have access to outdoors from my grow, so i can string a hose up to hook the pump to and empty the tank. After cleaning, which is a big deal and takes an hour or more weekly for each tent, I fill it up with gallons of water I have stored. The work is intensely physical in this sense; I'm 68, and have had two back surgeries. I can do it, but later I have to take pain killer in intense quantities.
3. You will need a good knowledge base. Congratulations! You are in one of the best bases of knowledge on the Internet. Get to know it and any other forum about hydro. Growing in a controlled environment, such as a tent or grow room, is different from growing in a window or the yard. Contamination in a grow tent will have little, if any defenders keeping it in check. And hydro has all the stuff a pest loves: water, air, light and food. So it is important that you know infection control techniques and prevent transporting or fostering mold, bacteria, insects and anything else you don't want growing there.

So I'm not trying to turn you off of hydro. I love it. The plants flourish and grow quickly. Because I have one grow ready to take over the flowering tent following harvest, I am able to harvest every three months. It's enough for my personal use only, but that is OK. I've been able to play around a little with different techniques. I've had some failures. But I have persevered! LOL. After three years of experience, I finally feel (almost) comfortable enough with the grow to leave it for a day now and then. But never more than overnight.

Honestly mate I never have to adjust my ph out with top up or res change day. I obsessively keep the ppm dropping by around 20ppm per day so it behaves itself.
In 5 weeks I've emptied the res once and topped them up 3 times. Never adjusted ph out with those 4 times. As you can see, they're almost perfect.
The one in bloom is an auto that's had 1 more change and 1 more top up and 2 weeks older.

 

[TorturedSoul]

If I had followed that advice on my hydro grows, I would have come back to a dead tent many times.

That kind of thing can vary for many reasons, even in the same grow. When I was doing large single-plant-per-reservoir grows, the liquid might easily last a week early on. Deep into flowering with a plant that filled an eight square foot SCROG screen, though, it was not unusual to add 10 to 13 gallons of solution (all that would fit in the reservoir because the root zone looked like "Cousin It" was living in the tote by that point) early in the morning before leaving and - if I arrived back late enough, especially if it was hot and the plants had transpired somewhat more than usual in order to self-cool - hear my aquarium power heads rattling because the solution had all but gone.

I measure my ph and keep it in the zone. I don't freak when it goes above 3.95, but I add ph down when it goes over 6. For example. Water level alone in a week's time would not be good. My babies drink a gallon a day, and it is a 10-gallon reservoir.

Yeah, babies don't consume much. Smaller adults don't, either. And it will vary depending on environmental conditions and, I think, amount of DO (dissolved oxygen) in the solution. I'm going to assume you meant to type "5.95." Instead of using pH down to readjust your reservoir, why not try adding back some of the nutrients that the plant has consumed (and most likely caused the upward pH shift in the first place)? Yeah, they can use the phosphoric acid/etc. that's in the pH down product, but they probably ate more than just that. You might find that you end up changing your reservoirs less if you begin replenishing what gets consumed. It's still a good idea to change occasionally, of course, because unless one mixes up their own nutrients from the individual elements, they won't be able to get things exact with just a few bottles - and there will be waste products to get rid of, of course. I don't recommend the practice, but some folks have managed to go weeks, all through the growth period, or even all the way to harvest without changing their reservoirs. Again, I wouldn't recommend it (for a variety of reasons), but it does tend to demonstrate that the gardener need not adhere to a strict schedule. Doing so is probably the lazy person's way in that one need not pay so much attention to the plants. Which is fine as far as it goes, I suppose, but it can be wasteful.

I spent well over a thousand altogether, getting started.

<LONG, LOW WHISTLE> I hope that was the cost of the hydroponic setup for both tents, the tents, the lights in them, fan(s) and filter(s), the seeds and/or clones, the first grow's nutrients, and maybe a bit of electricity, too, lol. I mean... It'll still work out to be cheaper to grow than buy, but wow.

Okay, that was a bit of an exaggerated reaction on my part as a literary device. I actually spent $700.01 on my first "modern" setup - and that didn't include the hydroponic part (which cost me about $32, lol). On the other hand, if a person doesn't mind dong just a wee bit of work and they are either reasonably competent or can follow simple directions, it can be done pretty cheaply. And to put that statement into perspective, lol, I'm poor. I helped set a buddy up with a single-space grow out of what I had laying around. Luckily, this included the seeds, because he's poor, too, and couldn't have bought them. And SweetSue was nice enough to win a light for him to use. To date, his costs have been water and electricity bills. Sometimes a friend can help in that regard. Other times, a person is going to have to gather their own equipment and, yes, some stuff you want to purchase new. But one can generally grow within just about any budget if he/she has to.

the cost is ongoing. Not as bad as the initial investment, but equipment wears out; lights, fans, filters, timers, etc.

That's an important point. Even if it's a personal grow, a person should look at it like a business - amortization. Estimate the lifetimes of the various pieces of equipment and start "paying into the fund" from day one. Maybe with a little extra thrown in from time to time, because this hobby is a lot like racing, lol - today, I just want to be a little quicker and go a little faster than I did yesterday... and tomorrow, I'll be saying the same thing .

The transport ease of bringing water to the grow and taking it out again. For me, a breeze. For others, maybe not. I have access to outdoors from my grow, so i can string a hose up to hook the pump to and empty the tank. After cleaning, which is a big deal and takes an hour or more weekly for each tent, I fill it up with gallons of water I have stored. The work is intensely physical in this sense; I'm 68, and have had two back surgeries. I can do it, but later I have to take pain killer in intense quantities.

Also an important consideration. A US gallon of water weighs 8.34 lbs or 3.78 kg at 62 °F (17 °C). Therefore, if the gardener has a decent sized reservoir (or several of them...), well, carrying ten gallons of water per trip means 83.4 pounds of water weight, and if several trips are required - and if there are stairs involved - it can be a significant factor.

Pumps are cheap, and so are water lines (well, if you figure the cost over the lifetime of years). It'd be great to have the water supply right in the grow room, or at least a handy bathroom directly across the hall, and an inexpensive pump to move the old solution to the vegetable garden outside.

You will need a good knowledge base. Congratulations! You are in one of the best bases of knowledge on the Internet.

. People here generally love to help, and that goes doubly for helping others learn to grow cannabis.

Contamination in a grow tent will have little, if any defenders keeping it in check.

Spider mites = The Borg. Russet mites = The Apocalypse, lol. Good hygiene is a must, and so is common sense. It might seem like a good idea to carry the plant(s) out to the back deck on a sunny day in order to take advantage of the great free light source, but pests love a free ride. Same holds true if you've just been mowing the back 40, probably wise to wash off and change out of your dirty clothes before visiting the grow space.

And hydro has all the stuff a pest loves

Well... That statement depends on the pest, I suppose. If a plant can spend its entire life cycle on the plant from egg to death, then yes for sure. Otherwise, when it comes to pests, I'll take a hydroponic grow over soil any day. Not a lot of the types of pests that we tend to have to deal with indoors have evolved to lay their eggs in water, and media such as large expanded clay balls or even perlite isn't much better for them. Soil, on the other hand...

I finally feel (almost) comfortable enough with the grow to leave it for a day now and then. But never more than overnight.

I was never comfortable with leaving, either. But it can be managed with some forethought. And money certainly helps, lol. If running a form of hydroponics that utilizes a separate reservoir, a float valve, nutrient dispensers, automated pH adjusters, et cetera can make a world of difference. When I still had access to the lab at a municipal wastewater treatment plant, I saw that they had "constant-use" pH meters that were meant to have the probe submerged in the solution at all times, and had off-site monitoring options. It was all unused - I think someone must have gone crazy with a five-figure budget and an equipment catalog a time or ten - but that kind of stuff is readily available. They didn't use any kind of meter for measuring total dissolved solids, because they took samples, flash-dried them, and then weighed the residue on a very accurate (.00001 gram, if I remember correctly) scale. But there are probably remote-monitoring electrical conductivity meters, too.

Now I do remember following along with a person's grow journal one year, in which he had pretty much set up a semi-automated grow (with remote monitoring, IIRC), auto-dosing, the works. But he didn't plan for all contingencies - and returned home to discover some highly p!ssed-off neighbors below him (he lived/gardened in an apartment) after there was a little incident that dumped 50 gallons of solution onto the floor. So it pays to imagine worst-case scenarios.

Growing cannabis, it's like that old adage, there are 1,001 ways to skin a dead cat. It's kind of a shame that it's not legal for kids to grow it - otherwise, we'd probably see some wonderful creations.