FWIW, I have grown in both soil and coco, and I find coco easier. The big difference is that coco is quick to fix if things are not quite right nute wise. Soil, otoh, is far more difficult to adjust once you are underway, especially late in the grow when you have no way of knowing exactly what is left in the medium, and therefore no way of knowing how to fix it. With coco, a quick flush with the adjusted nute mix, and things are sorted in short order, because the coco only has in it what you put there, not what is left after weeks of growth. OTOH, if you get the soil mix just right in large pots (~10+ gal or so), it is possible to do the whole grow with water irrigation only. I tried, but it did not work out that way for me, so I am back to coco for good now. Another difference is that yields with coco are larger than soil, at least in my experience. Some claim tastier weed from soil, but I have not noticed that myself. Perhaps I have an unsophisticated palate.
Another issue is that you must use buffered coco - it must be treated with cal-mag or it will suck up the calcium and magnesium form your nute mix and cause plant stress. When in doubt, buffer it yourself. Buffering is just giving the coco a good soak in double strength cal mag, and then flush with your starter nute mix.
I now use Floraflex perlite/coco mix. It comes loose in bags, and if you catch it on sale at Floraflex, it is a hell of a deal. It is nicely rinsed, but not buffered. When I buffer it, I first mix it up with cal mag in a bucket, stirring it into a slurry before putting it in final pots to drain overnight. Stirring it into a soaked slurry makes sure that it is thoroughly wet. I find that unless I do this initially, I find dry sections in the pot even after I have put a lot of liquid through it. By mixing it as a slurry, I can be certain that the medium has no dry spots in it out of sight in the final pot. Once final pots are drained after being mixed as a slurry, I flush once more with fresh cal mag mix, let it drain over night again, then flush with my nute mix. (in my case, ~400EC Jack's Clone). The pots then go into the grow drobe at temperature for a few days to drain and warm up before transferring seedlings into them from transplant solos (split solo cups that allow easy removal, leaving the seedling and medium in a fitted hole in the final pot medium). Some peeps just plant directly in the final pot, but I prefer to start with extra solos and transplant the nicest ones to final pots. Waiting for days for a reluctant seed to sprout in the final pot only to discover after a week or so that it is a dud is a PITA in my books.
It is a lot less important what nutes you use than it is how you use them - as long as they are a complete balanced mix intended for hydroponics. Coco is just hydroponics with root support. The main thing is keep the EC/PPM from getting too high - most of the specs from manufacturers are too rich, you are better off starting lean, and working up in EC until you see the first signs of excess on the most sensitive plants in the mix, then back off 10% or so. I strongly recommend keeping nutes simple. You do not need a huge list of extras. You are better off starting with a good hydroponics product like 2 part MegaCrop or Jack's. The expensive bottled liquid stuff is, IMO, just a waste of money. And all the fancy add ons are even worse.
I strongly recommend automated top watering. I tried bottom irrigation (autopots) a couple times, and found that I aways ended up with nute balance issues late in the grow due to salt buildup. Others make it work almost all the time, but it ain't my cuppa any more. Cocoforcannabis has a nice description of how to set up a diy system for automated top watering. If you don't do automated fertigation, keeping smaller pots happy with coco will wear out your patience. Once well established, my coco plants are fertigated to runoff six times a day. Overwatering is far, far less likely in a coco/perlite mix than it is in soil, especially in ventilated or fabric pots. My coco is wet all the time. You can waste nutes by using more than needed, but you are very unlikely to harm plants. Bottom line on fertigation of coco, is never ever let it dry out. The objective is for it to be nicely wet with balanced nutes 100% of the time. Frequent fertigation to runoff is the only way to accomplish that consistently in my opinion.
Good luck with it, I hear Cocoforcannabis calling your name.
