Soil cultivation: advantages and disadvantages
For more advanced growers, this is an absolute classic and a basic staple, whether it is outdoor soil, soil in the form of a substrate based on peat, or a combination of both. Growing in soil is also completely ideal for beginners, because unlike inert growing media or soilless plant cultivation, it tolerates classic beginner mistakes to a certain extent.
ADVANTAGES OF GROWING IN SOIL
- The main advantage lies in the overall lower demands, which beginners will especially appreciate, as we already indicated in the introduction to the article.
- Compared with hydroponics, which is very popular among growers who are not yet facing one of their first growing cycles, soil does not require constant measurement of precise values of pH, EC, etc.
- Another reason why growing plants in soil may be more advantageous for you is fluctuating temperature or humidity in the growing environment. You cannot allow that in hydroponics.
- Plants grown in soil also withstand drought better, as soil generally retains water well. You will appreciate this advantage when you suddenly have to leave for a few days and you are not yet equipped with an automatic irrigation system. Most plant species grown in soil can survive for quite a long time even without watering. (After all, beginning growers tend to overwater their plants rather than underwater them.) While in hydroponics we water several times a day, and therefore cannot even imagine it without hydroponic systems, soil only needs watering two or three times a week.
- Lower consumption of fertilisers is another significant benefit of growing in soil substrates. These are usually pre-fertilised, which means they already contain the nutrients needed for plant growth in the first weeks of the growing cycle. This saves beginning growers a lot of worries at the start. In hydroponics, plants must be supplied with nutrients in the exact amount from start to finish through a properly mixed nutrient solution, no ifs or buts.
- Outdoor soil also contains a significant amount of basic nutrients on its own, as these are formed, for example, by the decomposition of dead animals, plant parts or animal droppings.
- Soil is also capable, to a reasonable extent, of balancing the content of minerals and trace elements in the growing medium. Again, this is a great advantage at the beginning, when continuously maintaining the required amount of nutrients may be more demanding, because a beginning grower is also still learning many other procedures and keeping everything under control is not easy; on the contrary, one needs to mature into it so that growing is above all a pleasure.
- All you need to do is choose a quality substrate at a reasonable price, pots, and you can begin!
The best-selling soil from the BioNova brand wins hands down on price-to-quality ratio with us and with our customers.
- Soil is also not short of beneficial microorganisms, which support the plant in healthy development and break down organic compounds into more easily absorbable elements.
- If you grow plants in soil, you can use various organic soil improvers to achieve better results, such as BioNova VitaSol.
- An undeniable plus of growing in soil is the possibility of ecological produce in BIO quality using 100% natural fertilisers and additives, such as BioNova Veganics (see the link below to a separate article).
- In soil, there are no sudden chemical changes that a beginning grower would not be able to notice and respond to.
- Finally, it is necessary to highlight the overall lower financial demands.
DISADVANTAGES OF GROWING IN SOIL
- Less control over the process and the results. Growing in soil largely follows natural soil processes, which the grower influences only partly, unlike for example hydroponics or aeroponics, where you have absolute control over all growing processes. However, that also requires experience and resources, which again shifts us more towards the above list of advantages that growing in soil offers beginners.
- It is also difficult to estimate the actual and current state of the nutrients contained in the soil. What nutrients need to be supplemented to the plants at a given moment is often only discovered without experience when a specific deficiency appears directly on the plant. You can study the symptoms of important nutrient deficiencies in a separate article.
- Greater risk of plants being attacked by pests or diseases, and therefore also an increased need for prevention of these problems and higher costs for plant protection. Soil mix for indoor plant cultivation can be sterilised, but outdoor soil can no longer be sterilised.
- You can also use soil as a growing medium repeatedly for several growing cycles only if you take the trouble to revitalise it. Otherwise not.
