What’s the Best Growing Medium: Soil, Coco or Hydro?

by Nebula Haze


Table of Contents

What is a “Grow Medium”?

Best Grow Mediums for Cannabis

Conclusion: So, Which is Best?


 

Introduction to Cannabis Grow Mediums

When talking about growing marijuana, what is a “grow medium”?

growing medium or grow medium is what you’re growing your cannabis roots in, whether that substance is soil, perlite, coco coir, Rockwool, vermiculite, water, etc. Your marijuana plant will thrive as long as the roots have room to grow and have consistent access to fresh water, oxygen, and the proper nutrients in proper levels. There are a variety of ways to satisfy all these needs of a cannabis plant while growing, and each has its own pros and cons!

Every Grow Medium Must Help Roots Get What They Need: Water, Oxygen and the right Nutrients

Example of a rootbound cannabis plant - look at all those roots!

 

Best Growing Mediums for Marijuana

The three main types of grow mediums for marijuana plants are soil mixes, soilless mixes and hydroponics (water). Let’s do a quick breakdown of each one, along with the pros and cons for marijuana growers!

 

Soil or Compost

Soil or compost is one of the most popular growing mediums for marijuana plants because it is natural, easy to use, and available everywhere.

Good cannabis soil naturally contains at least some amount of nutrients, which means it will provide the nutrients your plants need for at least the first few weeks of life.

Example of Great Cannabis Soil

Example of great cannabis soil

If you decide to grow cannabis with soil, try using sterilized, loose, non-peat based potting compost. Often these are listed as an “organic potting mix.” I recommend soil mixes with at least 20-30% of a soil conditioner like perlite (little white rocks in the soil). This will provide drainage and keep higher amounts of air/oxygen in the soil, which causes cannabis plants to grow faster.

Plants in soil grow a little slower than in coco or hydro, but soil-grown buds tend to have a stronger smell/taste. Although using a standard soil potting mix and giving nutrients in the water gets results similar to coco, using amended and composted living soil tends to produce buds with a powerful and complex scent/taste profile.

Example of Amended and Composted Living Soil – Just add water!

Hands in marijuana "super soil" or living soil

With living soil, a colony of microorganisms in the soil creates an ecosystem that mimics the best-of-the-best soil in nature. The nutrients are slowly broken down from organic sources and delivered directly to your plant roots. For some reason, plants grown in this type of root environment tend to produce very strong-smelling buds. One thing that’s really great about living soil is you usually don’t need to use any added nutrients.

The result is strong-scented buds grown only with natural processes and all you have to do is just add water and let the soil do the magic! The biggest downside to living soil is that plants tend to grow a little slower than with other grow mediums, and some people don’t like the smell of the composted soil, especially in the house.

What should I look for when it comes to soil?

 

Common Cannabis-Friendly Soil Mixes in the US:

Example of Great Soil – Fox Farm Ocean Forest is rich and light, plus it’s packed with nutrients in the right ratio for growing cannabis!

Example of a cannabis plant growing in Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil

 


 

Soilless Mediums (Coco Coir & Perlite)

Composted super soil is rich with all the stuff your cannabis plants loveSoilless potting mixtures that are composed of inert (non-soil) ingredients like coco coirperlite, peat moss, Rockwool, and vermiculite can be a great choice for growing marijuana.

When growing in a soilless medium, you can treat your plants almost the same as if growing in soil. The main difference is you feed all their nutrients in the water. As a result of your plants getting nutrients delivered directly to their roots, you will often get quicker growth and higher yields than growing in soil (where the roots have to seek out nutrition).

Another advantage of growing in a soilless mix over soil is that you are less likely to run into problems with overwatering or bugs.

Although there are many different possible soilless ingredients, the most popular potting mixes for cannabis contain significant amounts of coco coir and perlite. This combination seems to work especially well for growing cannabis. As a result of coco’s growing popularity, other types of soilless mixes (especially the peat-based ones) have become far less common in cannabis grow rooms over the years.

Even when it comes to soil mixes, you still often see both coco and perlite in the ingredient list, because they help improve the overall properties of the soil.

In fact, I strongly recommend beginner growers start out their plants in a coco-based soilless potting mixture, and I have written a detailed tutorial on how to grow 4-7 oz. of marijuana using coco coir for first-time growers. I’ve also grown a pound of weed in a 2×4 tent using coco coir and a 315W LEC light!

I have personally found coco/perlite to be the most straightforward and forgiving growing medium for indoor cannabis, and over the years I’ve also seen that coco growers seem to be the least likely to run into problems during their first grow!

Coco coir is how I started growing, and I recommend it to anyone 🙂 Here’s me during my first grow with my coco-grown plants:

Nebula Haze with her first cannabis plants - grown in coco coir!

Learn how to grow cannabis with coco coir or view the Step-By-Step 250W Coco Tutorial to produce 4-7oz on your first grow with coco using auto-flowering strains. I highly recommend this tutorial for beginner growers looking to get started with their first grow!

Example of auto-flowering cannabis plants growing under a 250W HPS grow light

 

Common Cannabis-Friendly Coco Coir Mixes in the US:


 

Hydroponics

Lots of bubbles make cannabis roots happy in hydroponicsWhen people are talking about hydroponics, they’re usually referring to growing your cannabis with the roots sitting directly in water. The most popular style of hydroponics for cannabis plants is known as Deep Water Culture (a.k.a. DWC), and it has a very popular variant known as “bubbleponics” or a top-fed Deep Water Culture (DWC) system.

DWC is one of the few types of hydroponics that can support larger plants. Other types of hydroponics (for example NFT or Aeroponics) have a difficult time growing plants as big and nutrient-hungry as cannabis.

Check out our tutorial which will show you how to grow your marijuana plants using the bubbleponics method.

Example of cannabis roots growing directly in a solution of nutrient water

Example of cannabis roots growing in a hydroponic reservoir

Two hydroponic cannabis plants in the vegetative stage

Example of two happy DWC hydroponic cannabis plants in the vegetative stage

Example of flowering DWC cannabis plants. They grow so quickly that they can quickly take over your grow room!

Example of flowering DWC grown cannabis plants - look at all that bud!

Hydroponics can be really scary, but I’ve seen so many first-time growers get great results with hydroponics. The most important thing to remember is to follow the instructions and always get a root supplement like Hydroguard. I love hydro. After growing for several years, I think it may be my favorite grow style. You get the fastest growth and most control over nutrients of any grow medium!

What exactly is hydroponics and is it good for growing marijuana?

Example of giant DWC cannabis roots growing in a hydroponic reservoir

By the end of a hydro grow, you may find yourself with huge masses of roots!

Example of removing roots after a hydroponic cannabis plant was harvested


 

Conclusion: What’s the Best Grow Medium for Growing Cannabis?

  • Soil or Compost – Grow in organic composted living soil for the most complex-smelling buds and a “just add water” growing experience. Or start with a cannabis-friendly soil mix such as the popular Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil mix (FFOF already contains enough nutrients to last the first month of your young plant’s life) and give nutrients in the water as plants get older.
  • Soilless Mix – Although this technically includes any grow mix that doesn’t include soil, with ingredients such as coco coirperlitevermiculite, etc., most cannabis growers use a mix that’s primarily made out of coco coir and perlite. All soilless mixes are technically considered hydroponic growing since there’s no soil, but most growers think of them as somewhere in between soil and hydro, and you get a lot of the best parts of both. I highly recommend a coco/perlite mix like FoxFarm Cultivation Nation 70/30 Coco Coir and Perlite for your first cannabis grow.
  • Directly in Water / Hydroponics – Get some of the fastest growth possible, especially when combined with HID grow lights such as LEDs, HPS or LECs. I’ve had many of successful grows using a top-fed DWC system, and I think it may be my favorite style of growing.

About Less Common Types of Hydro: Some people grow with plant roots suspended in misted air (aeroponics), in an assembly line (NFT),  or in a tank with fish (aquaponics), but these are better suited to smaller plants, and not commonly used to grow cannabis.

So what’s REALLY the best medium? Alright, I’ll stop dancing around what you’re really here for. I’ll rank the popular mediums for different aspects, then I’ll tell you which one I think is the best overall…

Note: The contenders are Soil, Living Soil (composted), Coco Coir (soilless), Hydro (DWC – roots suspended in water)

Fastest Growth:

  1. Hydro
  2. Coco Coir
  3. Soil
  4. Living Soil

Best Smell/Taste Profile:

  1. Living Soil + CMH/LEC grow lights
  2. Everything Else

Easiest Grow:

  1. Living Soil
  2. Coco Coir
  3. Soil
  4. Hydro

Highest Yields:

  1. Hydro
  2. Coco Coir
  3. Soil
  4. Living Soil

Least Chance of Bugs/Pests:

  1. Hydro
  2. Coco Coir
  3. Soil
  4. Living Soil

BEST CANNABIS MEDIUM OVERALL:

Believe it or not, the best overall medium – in my opinion – is coco coir!

Allow me to explain…

Check out the rankings above; in this case, the medium with the lowest number ranks the best. If you add it all up, Coco Coir ends up being the winner and it’s clear why. Coco coir isn’t the best at anything, but it’s the second-best at pretty much everything: it grows almost as fast as hydro, it’s easier to use than soil, yields second best to hydro, and gets fewer bugs than soil. Coco coir is kind of a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none.

Another cool thing about coco coir is that it’s renewable, so it’s easier on the environment. Most soils use peat which is a limited resource, and hydro can add nutrient water to the water supply. Properly used coco coir doesn’t have any of these problems so you can feel good about using it. Unfortunately, perlite – which is almost always used with coco coir – isn’t renewable, so in a sense, coco coir isn’t renewable because of its dependence on perlite.

Each growing medium that you can use has different care and watering requirements.

Young cannabis seedling growing in rich soil in a person's hands


 

Best of the Best: Grow Medium Roundup

We declared coco coir the winner of this little contest, but all the mediums are the best at one thing. Get the best brand of cannabis grow medium to match your preference and grow style.

Common Cannabis-Friendly Coco Coir Mixes in the US:

Common Cannabis-Friendly “Living” Soil Mixes in the US:

Common Cannabis-Friendly Soil Mixes in the US:


 

Give Roots Room to Breathe!

When growing cannabis in containers, for example with soil or coco, it’s important to give your plant roots enough room to grow. If they run out of space, it will limit the size of your plant, and often causes nutrient deficiencies and other problems like persistent droopiness. If your roots have circled around the edges of the container, it is rootbound and should be transplanted to a bigger container immediately!

Example of a cannabis seedling in coco coir which has become root bound. When the roots wrap around the edges of the pot, it starts to "choke" your cannabis plant

What type of pot should I use for soil or soilless growing mediums?

Plants don’t really get “rootbound” in hydroponics because the roots are being constantly bathed in a nutrient water solution that provides both nutrients and oxygen to all parts of the roots. However, if the reservoir is too small your plants will drink all the water before you can replace it!

Your cannabis plants need a grow medium! Hopefully, today’s tutorial will help you pick the perfect one for your needs!

Example of cannabis roots - exposed!


 

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