Indoor Growing: Dirty Fingernails, Better Life

I have grown marijuana using three different types of methods : hydroponics, aquaponics, and dirt. Dirt is by far the easiest and most forgiving of all of those methods.

Indoor growing can consume a majority of free time and enslave your life if you let it. When I grew hydroponically, checking system vitals became part of daily life like brushing your teeth or eating breakfast. I made it even more complicated by growing aquaponically using live goldfish. The results were amazing. But both growing methods consumed all my free time.

I almost gave up on the idea of growing indoors at all. What was the point of working your ass off when you could buy the same product from any one of the hundreds of dispensaries around Denver? The stubbornness in me kept pushing forward and out of desperation started using dirt. My life is so much easier now.

Switching back to dirt has freed up my time and made growing fun again. When I grow now I don’t stress out about pH levels, or total dissolved solids, or always wonder if the system has a leak and destroyed something with water damage. Its so easy to set up too. You fill up a pot with dirt, plant a clone, and regularly water it. I will fertilize the plant occasionally with organic fertilizer and never need to flush the soil.

Its not as easy to find someone that can take care of a pot plant when you’re gone on vacation. So If I leave for an extended amount of time I just turn the intensity of lights down and water a little more than usual. By doing this I was able to leave my system unattended for five days straight. When I returned I simply watered the plant and increased the intensity of lights. Marijuana can handle stress better when they are in dirt.

Soil does have some drawbacks. The growing times are generally longer and the yields are smaller than hydroponics. The higher the quality of soil the higher and healthier the plant will be. Soil can cost as much as 25 dollars a bag. I purchase mine from the local nursery for 10 dollars a bag. Cheaper soils like Miracle Grow should be avoided as these are low in nutrients and can contain soil gnats.

So if you want to grow weed indoors and simplify the growing process dirt makes sense. If you want to crank out huge colas, and a massive amount of weed then be prepared to invest some time and money in hydroponics. I’m happy with medium yields and it just feels better to play in a bucket of dirt rather than a bucket of water.