I'm an older guy getting into the hobby for personal/medical use with a 3x3 tent, ViparSpectra ks3000, etc... I'm on my second tent grow and am running an experiment for myself, comparing soil grow to pure sphagnum moss wicking grow (not peat) like the old phototron closet device I used 30 years ago. Mostly I just wanted to make a good feeding schedule for sphagnum moss wicking system using something common like GH, to tie my experience from now back to my past closet grow experiences with the phototron. I'm running two in soil using 3-gal fabric as a comparison and two in moss. Last harvest was my first with auto flowers, my first in a tent, etc. It was fun but I did stunt my autos a bit being too careful with nutrients, plus they were small anyway, and I accidentally let the two in soil hermie so they seeded. Fortunately I caught it before it seeded the moss plants. I did get some amazing buds from the moss grow (zkittlez auto fem), that turned out very potent and frosty, but I didn't flush long enough and didn't have my drying setup correct at the time so they still have a bit of green smell, although they are still curing in grow bags and smelling better and better like candy all the time. After tossing the two hermies I got about 5oz overall cured bud from those two smaller zkittlez auto fems.
This time I'm running two critical FB auto fem, and two GSC auto fem (one each in soil and moss). The critical FB is growing quite a bit larger than the GSC, but they all appear to be doing fine in week 7 (about 2.5 into flower). The moss wicking system is getting the custom general hydroponics schedule that I am still fine tuning. The soil I made using local organic potting soil with extra perlite and worm castings, and gaia green 4-4-4, then gaia bloom later as top dressing (and some more worm castings).
So far the sphagnum moss pure hydro wicking seems to be growing slightly better and with a lot more control, but it could all be down to the semi-random genetics you get in some autos. The moss Critical FB is huge taking up about a third of the tent, and the others are looking more like normal autos. What I like about the hydro wicking is how amazingly simple it is. Just clean your moss (I'm reusing it), leave a hole to the bottom so you can watch the rate of absorption, then just feed it according to a schedule where I make up specific hydro nutrients a gallon at a time and feed as they need. My moss is in rectangular car washing buckets without holes in the bottom, because they are not too tall in my tent and hold a good amount of moss. I wouldn't do this with a large grow as mixing the nutrients can be a daily tedious process, but for a hobby guy like me I find it fun. Definitely simpler to grow in soil, but without as much day-to-day control it seems. Not sure if I'll keep growing in moss but I like it a lot so we'll see. I may want to learn coco coir growing too, and I do want to fine tune my soil recipe also for my next crop. So, we'll see. So far, I'm enjoying the comparison and learning a lot. I'm not sure what I'll do next time but so far I really like growing in reusable sphagnum moss.
This time I'm running two critical FB auto fem, and two GSC auto fem (one each in soil and moss). The critical FB is growing quite a bit larger than the GSC, but they all appear to be doing fine in week 7 (about 2.5 into flower). The moss wicking system is getting the custom general hydroponics schedule that I am still fine tuning. The soil I made using local organic potting soil with extra perlite and worm castings, and gaia green 4-4-4, then gaia bloom later as top dressing (and some more worm castings).
So far the sphagnum moss pure hydro wicking seems to be growing slightly better and with a lot more control, but it could all be down to the semi-random genetics you get in some autos. The moss Critical FB is huge taking up about a third of the tent, and the others are looking more like normal autos. What I like about the hydro wicking is how amazingly simple it is. Just clean your moss (I'm reusing it), leave a hole to the bottom so you can watch the rate of absorption, then just feed it according to a schedule where I make up specific hydro nutrients a gallon at a time and feed as they need. My moss is in rectangular car washing buckets without holes in the bottom, because they are not too tall in my tent and hold a good amount of moss. I wouldn't do this with a large grow as mixing the nutrients can be a daily tedious process, but for a hobby guy like me I find it fun. Definitely simpler to grow in soil, but without as much day-to-day control it seems. Not sure if I'll keep growing in moss but I like it a lot so we'll see. I may want to learn coco coir growing too, and I do want to fine tune my soil recipe also for my next crop. So, we'll see. So far, I'm enjoying the comparison and learning a lot. I'm not sure what I'll do next time but so far I really like growing in reusable sphagnum moss.
good luck with your experiment
