Soil VS Hydro is a hot topic in the growing community, and depending on the grower's skills and preferences, they both have their advantages. Both options can wield great plants but if you have an upstairs indoor grow, go hydro. Save the hassle of walking up the stairs with bags of soil and help the environment by conserving water.
Reason You should Grow Hydro
Growing by hydro lowers your footprint on how much water you use, nutrients, and labor.
It's a lot easier to fix problems in hydro. For example, if you mess up your nutrients in the reservoir, you clean it out and make a new batch, while with soil, you have to flush your plants and possibly transplant them.
It takes more skill and troubleshooting to crack a problem within the soil.
With soil, if you want to change the solution, you have to flush the soil, while with hydroponics, a quick water flush and change of solution should elevate your problem.
The solution you make for hydroponics is good for up to two weeks even though most feeding schedules have you change it weekly, and with some adjustments, you can maintain a minimal effort regimen. However, soil can be more forgiving with Ph. Hydro can be maintained with meters and equipment, which can be costly.
There are fewer bugs and pathogens with hydro than soil because the soil is not sanitized regularly.
Hydroponics grows faster than soil because the plants always have nutrients available. Plants in soil have to break down the nutrients from the ground to get it, taking time and effort.
Plants grown indoor-hydro tend to yield dense and high-quality nugs. Typically smaller than outdoor, the nutrients are more concentrated toward the plant. While plants grown in soil take more water and nutrients, nugs grown by hydro reflect its quality and the quantity of available nutrients. Hydro uses less water and is better for the environment but uses more electricity.
If you are outsourcing workers to set up your soil-grown plants, consider switching to hydro and save the effort, time, and money by making a conscious switch.