Choosing Your Medium for Growing Medical Marijuana

There are three main mediums for growing cannabis: soil, hydroponics, aeroponics.  Although, there are some people that come up with ideas that include any combination of those three.  A system is distinguished by the way nutrient solutions are applied.

Soil

Soil is the use of, you guessed it, soil (aka dirt) as the medium for growing your marijuana plants.  I would recommend using FoxFarm soil, if you can afford it, with perlite (2:1).  Of course, this is preference just as many other parts of the grow process are.  The advantages are that soil is more forgiving, easier (depending on your views), the best way to produce organic product, allows more room for error, less costly and can be done with less know-how.  There are, of course, your disadvantages.  It is slower to grow.  It’s important to diagnose problems early.  The soil is more like to attract pest and/or disease, although this is a problem in all mediums to some extent.  You will definitely need a larger space than you would for other medium choices.  Automation is not easy when using soil as your medium.  It is likely that you will have a lower yield, as well.

Hydroponics (Hydro)

Hydroponics is the use of water as your medium for growing marijuana.  The advantages to this, if you do it correctly, are an increased yield, possible increased potency, faster yields and the setup is usually ready for you to go.  The disadvantage is that it requires more technical knowledge, a higher initial cost, plants react more quickly and uninterrupted power is essential.  Hydro gives you the means to supply the max nutrients needed for a beautiful outcome but can cause error to happen quickly, as well.  Hydroponics will require more attention and care than soil because, it will grow faster.  How much faster?  Well, it is common to have about twice as much growth as compared with soil.  Within the hydro medium, there are many choices of delivering your nutrients.  Some of the options are using a top feed system, an ebb & flow, deep water culture or nutrient film technique (NFT)  We’ll go into the choices within hydroponics in another article.

Aeroponics (Aero)

Aeroponics is the use of an air or mist environment for your growing.  There actually is no medium involved.  While that means it doesn’t fit under the category of “medium”, I think it is still makes sense to list it here as an option.  Some people actually consider this to be a form of hydroponics because, a mist is typically sprayed on the roots to transmit nutrients to the plants.  This means, you are still utilizing water in this method.  When growing cannabis with aeroponics, it is extremely fast growing.  What is the downside to this?  Well, when plants are developing quickly that means bad things can advance very quickly.  Of course, if you know what you’re doing, good things can produce a healthy fast grow.  This is definitely not a medium to start with.  Once you have tried out soil or hydro, you might attempt aero.  There are just too many potential problems to make it worth it for a first time grower.  Aeroponic marijuana requires great attention and know-how.  The roots are very delicate and are extremely exposed, which makes them very vulnerable.

Which medium is right for you to grow your medical marijuana in?

After reading through these choices, you are probably wondering how you should choose the best medium for you.  What things do you need to consider to determine your medium?  You need to consider your space.  If you have a lot of room, you can really chose any medium.  You’ll want to consider how much you want to grow, the money you have to spend and your electric availability. If you are just starting out, you could really choose soil or hydro.  Even if you’ve never grown cannabis before, you can be successful with hydro.  Although it is faster growing and less forgiving, it’s still fairly easy to do with close care and attention.  If you are more hands-on or really aren’t good with plants, you might want to choose soil just to allow some extra space for air.  It’s really great that you can go as close to organic as possible with soil, as well.  Aeroponics really shouldn’t be attempted with beginners.  However, if you’re feeling really confident, you can still go for it.  I wouldn’t recommend it though.  It’s a great choice for an experienced grower that really has a feel for how the plants react to their stimuli.

The important thing to do here is to pick your medium and get started!  There are so many times that potential growers see all the choices and become overwhelmed and don’t start because of it.  Take out a pen and paper or open up a document and get your ideas down.  Plan for the amount of money and space you have and pick your system.  In order to become experienced, all you have to do is start!  You might not get it just right the first time.  You’ll probably have problems and encounter issues you know nothing about.  You’ll learn.  Everything is trial and error.  If you don’t try just once, you’ll never become a grower.  Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty.  Besides, a little green doesn’t hurt, does it?

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