There has been a debate as to which growth medium is most beneficial for home- or commercially-grown plants. On one end there is soil, the traditional growth medium that has been used for thousands of years to grow plants, and on the other is hydroponics, a more recent practice of growing plants with water and nutrients but no soil. So the question remains, which process is more suitable for growing things?

One of the most important advantages of hydroponics over soil growth is the absence of weeds and pests in hydroponic growth environments. Soil can play host to a variety of insect pests and plant parasites as well as competing weeds that can take away valuable nutrients or sunlight from your plants. Of course, if you are growing a small number of plants indoors in small pots, then chances are that you won't run into too many problems with weeds or pests that you can't handle as needed. However, if you're planning on growing many plants that require a good deal of nutrients and live in a pest-susceptible environment, then hydroponics may be the way to go in order to avoid spending money on pesticides and herbicides.

Hydroponics also benefit the overall growth of the plant in terms of size. Root systems spread throughout soil in order to increase surface area and the chance that the plant will absorb minerals and water that percolate through the soil. However, with hydroponic plants, the nutrients are present all throughout the liquid mixture, so the root system does not have to be as extensive as with soil-based plants. This means that the plant can devote more nutrients and energy to growth above the root system, which is the kind of growth that people generally want. Furthermore, plants that are grown hydroponically do not need to be repotted in order to accommodate growing roots that might become too large for the initial pot to contain comfortably. The hydroponic plants are constantly supplied with a ready stock of water and generally reach maturity faster than soil-grown plants.

It might seem as if hydroponics requires more water than soil-based plants. The contrary is actually true in this case, as hydroponic systems generally use up to one-tenth less water than irrigated soil crops.

Is there any way that soil is better than hydroponics? The answer is yes. Since hydroponics depends on adding balanced nutrient solutions at particular times during growth, it is quite possible to make mistakes when giving nutrients to the water-grown plants. With soil-grown plants, excessive nutrients can be more readily absorbed and carried away by the soil. Although hydroponics is not a particularly difficult system for growing plants, it is one that requires a good deal of attention, research, and care.

In conclusion, hydroponics carries several advantages over soil-growing and could benefit the grower in a number of ways. However, soil-growing has been tried and true for centuries and is certainly not inferior to hydroponics so long as the grower is diligent and careful.

Issues & Tradeoffs Common to Both Methods

Á        Running costs for consumables aren't much different after the first crop

Á        Both take experience to manage fluently

Á        Both require mixing:
    For soil - amendments are mixed into the soil
    For hydro - nutrients are mixed into the water

Á        Good indoor sanitation practices should be followed with both

Á        Headroom needed is about the same considering pot sizes and reservoir dimensions

Á        Hardware for both is generally universally available at garden centers or home centers

Á        Both can produce poor tasting buds if improperly managed

Soil Advantages

• Fertilizers are universally available
• Less costly for initial setup
• Swift changes in nutrient chemistry usually don't occur, depending on care, but are difficult to correct

Soil Disadvantages

• Messy
• More likely to encounter pests
• Not well adapted for automated irrigation and long periods of unattended use
• No options are available for medium less cultivation
• Growing medium is not reused, and needs to be replaced with each crop
• Requires larger pots and greater quantities of medium
• Medium quality or content (nutrient deficiencies/toxicities) are difficult to treat once in use
• Chemical imbalances take much more time to correct
• Growth rate is slower
• Often requires the addition of chemical fertilizers once soil begins running low on essential nutrients

Hydro Advantages

• Cleaner, better suited for use in the home
• Less likely to encounter pests
• Is well adapted for automated irrigation and long periods of unattended use
• Options are available for medium less cultivation
• Growing mediums are commonly reused, and don't need to be replaced with each crop
• Smaller pots and less medium are used
• Medium quality or content (nutrient deficiencies/toxicities) are easy to control during use
• Chemical imbalances are instantly corrected by replacing the nutrient solution
• Growth rate is faster
• Additional supplementation beyond the nutrient mix isn't required, medium never runs low on essential nutrients

Hydro Disadvantages

• Fertilizers are usually found at specialty hydroponic sources
• More costly for initial setup
• Swift changes in medium chemistry can occur, depending on care, but are simple to correct

By definition, soil refers to an earthen growing medium (substrate) in which all the nutritive elements needed to sustain plant life are self-contained within the medium and activated by the addition of plain water. Hydro refers to a variety of inert growing mediums that can use a variety of irrigation methods in which all the nutritive elements needed to sustain plant life are self-contained within the water via the addition of a soluble fertilizer. Hydro can also refer to water culture, where no substrate of any kind is used. It can be important for the inexperienced grower to understand those simple differences because soil and hydro are both often viewed as meaning this method or that method (the singular), where hydroponics (the plural) actually refers to any one of several methods depending on which hydroponic growing medium and irrigation method one chooses.

By: Richie Coutts

• Earthworms - which aerate the soil and produce casting which provide great tucker for plants.
• Micro-organisms - millions of mini-helpers that are too small to see such as bacteria, actinomycetes, algae, yeasts, protozoa, viruses, phages, and nematodes which help plants in heaps of different ways by breaking down organic matter in the soil, fixing nitrogen or even helping to control other harmful micro-organisms.
• Fungi - There is more fungus in a gram of healthy soil than you could count in a month! All performing even more helpful functions such as to digest organic matter and convert solid minerals into plant nutrients. Many fungi produce useful antibiotic substances. Some Fungi directly support plants by connecting to the plants' roots, which assists with nutrient supply and disease resistance.
• Invertebrates - More helpful little critters (these ones you can see) such as insects, spiders, mites, crustaceans and other arthropods. They can help with aeration and aid in the breakdown of organic matter.

If you are growing a plant why would you want to leave out all those millions of little helpers!!

Healthy soil also has many other benefits such as its ability to hold water and to support plants and the root system. On the whole, soil houses a very complex ecosystem and we still don't understand fully how it all works. A hydroponic system uses a very sterile environment which doesn't allow those millions of little helpers to do their job.

Pamela Anderson of the fruit n veg world!

Have you ever wondered why a lot of the hydroponically grown stuff that you see in the supermarket looks like the Pamela Anderson of the fruit n veg world?

• The perfect shaped tomato, shiny and plump
• Lettuces that are crispy and juicy that have never seen a snail or slug
• That red capsicum that looks like it's on steroids!

Note: No offence to Pamela Anderson intended.
It looks unnatural because the plants are force-fed and pumped up with nutrients (often using synthetic fertilisers). Produce that is grown hydroponically may be high in nutrient content but it probably lacks many of the trace elements and minerals that you find in soil and that are made available to the plant with the help of our millions of little helpers.
You will not see any hydroponic tomatoes in a certified organic fruit and vegetable shop because it is not grown naturally.

Sprout Organic Wheatgrass recognises the importance of growing in a soil/compost based medium as opposed to hydroponically. Plants and trees have been thriving in soil for millions of years. Keep it natural!!

Sources: Soil association of SA (Encouraging organic methods of farming and gardening)
> UK Soil Association

Interesting fact:

Soil biological life
Soil is not simply the physical material on the earth's surface: probably the most important component is the living organisms within it. Healthy soil contains extremely large numbers: typically 600 million bacteria/gram (when no agro-chemicals are applied). A typical arable soil may contain 100 million bacteria/g while a desert soil, with little structure and fertility, has 'only' c.1 million bacteria/g. The rhizosphere, the thin layer immediately next to a plant root, typically has 1 million, million bacteria/g.
Diversity is also important:
in 1g of healthy soil there can be 15-20,000 different species of bacteria, with perhaps 10,000 in a typical arable soil and 5-8000 in a desert soil.
Fungi are also very important, especially mycorrhiza which form close associations with plant roots. Fungi greatly exceed the volume of bacteria in soil, with 1km of fungal hyphae have been detected in 1g of soil..

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