Systems
Soil, coco, rockwool, living soil and every hydro system.
Bottom-watering, soak trays and wick (self-watering) systems
Bottom-watering lets pots draw solution up from a tray, either by a timed soak (flood 2–5 cm for 10–30 minutes, then drain) or by a constant shallow level held by a float valve or wick. It is gentle and labour-saving and suits soil, but salts accumulate at the top of the pot, so feed at lower EC than top-feeding and top-water to runoff every week or two.
Choosing your growing system: soil, coco, rockwool or hydro
Choose by how much attention and measurement you can give, not by yield claims. Soil and living soil forgive mistakes for days; coco and drip need daily feeding; DWC, NFT and aeroponics grow fast but can lose roots within hours if a pump or air supply fails. No controlled study shows one system out-yielding the others when light and climate are equal.
Deep water culture (DWC)
In DWC roots hang in an aerated nutrient solution. It grows fast but depends on two things: dissolved oxygen (keep above about 6 mg/L, ideally near saturation) and solution temperature (18–22 °C / 64–72 °F). Warm, poorly aerated water is how Pythium root rot starts. Run pH 5.6–6.0 and EC 0.8–2.0 mS/cm by stage, and treat the air pump as life support.
Drain-to-waste drip and crop steering (generative vs vegetative dryback)
Drain-to-waste drip sends fresh solution every shot and discards runoff, so you control the root zone by irrigation timing, shot size and substrate EC measured with a VWC/EC probe. Vegetative steering uses earlier first shots, larger shots and small overnight drybacks (about 10–15 % VWC); generative steering delays the first shot, uses smaller shots, longer P3 and larger drybacks (about 20–35 %) with higher substrate EC. The ranges are grower practice; one cannabis study found controlled late-flower drought raised cannabinoid concentration.
Ebb and flow (flood and drain)
A pump floods a table or tray of pots to a standpipe height, then the solution drains back to the reservoir. Each flood refreshes water and pulls fresh air into the medium as it drains. Typical schedules: clay pebbles 3–6 floods per light period of 10–15 minutes, coco or rockwool 1–3. It is robust because the media buffer pump failures for days, but salts can build up at the top of the medium.
Fogponics: ultrasonic fog for roots (a supplement, not a system)
Fogponics uses ultrasonic transducers to make a 5–10 µm water fog that is blown into a root chamber. Fog carries very little dissolved nutrient (salts stay behind and concentrate in the fogger tank), transducers wear out in roughly 1,000–3,000 hours and run hot, so GenetixBay treats fog as a humidity supplement for cloning domes and aeroponic chambers, not as a standalone way to feed a flowering plant.
Growing in coco coir
Coco coir is a hydroponic substrate that looks like soil: inert-ish, airy, and fed every irrigation with a complete mineral solution at pH 5.8–6.2 and EC 1.2–2.4 mS/cm with 10–20 % runoff. Use pre-washed, buffered coco or buffer it yourself with a calcium/magnesium solution, because raw coir holds potassium and sodium and grabs calcium and magnesium.
Growing in rockwool (stonewool cubes and slabs)
Rockwool is an inert, unbuffered mineral fibre that holds a lot of water and air and gives precise control over the root zone. Pre-soak at pH about 5.5, run pH 5.5–6.0 and EC 1.8–3.0 mS/cm in flower, and manage it by volumetric water content and slab EC. It is the native medium of crop steering, and it punishes neglect quickly because nothing buffers mistakes.
Growing in soil (potting mix with bottled feed)
Soil (a peat- or compost-based potting mix fed with dilute bottled nutrients) is the most forgiving system: it buffers pH and nutrients and holds water for days. Water to light runoff when the pot is light, feed at EC 0.8–1.6 mS/cm with water at pH 6.2–6.8, and remember that over-watering, not under-feeding, kills most soil plants.
High-pressure aeroponics (HPA)
HPA atomises nutrient solution at roughly 80–100 psi (5.5–7 bar) through fine nozzles into a root chamber, giving fine droplets (about 10–100 µm) and very high root oxygen. It can grow outstanding root systems but has the shortest failure margin of any system: roots can be damaged within tens of minutes if misting stops. It needs an accumulator, pressure monitoring, filtration, anti-drip nozzles and a backup plan.
Kratky (passive, non-circulating hydroponics)
Kratky is hydroponics with no pump: the plant sits above a container of nutrient solution, drinks it down, and the growing air gap gives the upper roots oxygen. It was developed and published for lettuce and tomatoes at the University of Hawaii. Cannabis can be grown this way, but its large water use means big containers, careful refills that keep the air gap, and close attention to water temperature and EC drift.
Living soil (no-till, water-only organic growing)
Living soil is a large, biologically active, amended organic soil that is reused without tilling and watered with plain dechlorinated water; soil organisms release nutrients. It is forgiving and low-input once established but slow to correct, so build it well, keep it moist and mulched, never use salt-based nutrients or sanitisers on it, and don't chase pH. Most of its claims are grower practice rather than tested in cannabis.
Low-pressure aeroponics (LPA)
LPA uses an ordinary submersible pump and spray heads to drench roots hanging in a dark chamber with coarse droplets. It is essentially a spray-assisted hydro system: forgiving (a pool on the chamber floor keeps roots wet for hours), cheap, and easier than true high-pressure aeroponics. Run sprays continuously or on short cycles such as 1 minute on, 4 off, with a chamber humidity watchdog and solution at 18–22 °C.
Nutrient film technique (NFT)
In NFT a thin, continuous film of nutrient solution runs down sloped channels past bare roots. It is efficient and well proven for lettuce and herbs, but large cannabis root masses can dam the channel, and roots dry within one to three hours if the pump stops. Keep flow continuous (about 1–2 L/min per channel), slope about 1:30 to 1:100, and solution at 18–22 °C.
Recirculating deep water culture (RDWC)
RDWC links several DWC sites to a control bucket and circulates the solution with a pump, so one reservoir sets pH, EC and temperature for every plant and a single chiller cools the lot. It adds circulation and plumbing failure modes to DWC's oxygen and temperature risks. Targets match DWC: 18–22 °C, DO above 6 mg/L, pH 5.6–6.0.
Recirculating drip (top-feed, runoff returns)
A pump pushes nutrient solution through drip emitters into pots of coco, rockwool or clay pebbles and the runoff returns to the reservoir. It saves water and nutrients but the reservoir slowly drifts as runoff brings back salts and root exudates, so monitor runoff and refresh when reservoir chemistry diverges. Typical shots are 2–6 % of pot volume, first shot 1–2 h after lights-on, none in the dark.
