simpsonsampson420,
The medium that came with my kit is: BioBizz AllMix Soil & Clay Pebbles
that sound about right?
I get now from the link you provided that I should indeed get a propigator or (starter tray / dome) which in there I put the germed seeds that are in the autorooters etc..
As for your aeroponic question, I dont have a propigator yet, would you say its better to get an aeroponic propigator or just a heated / non heater propigator?
As for feeding / watering, so an aeroponic propigator basically takes care of the watering by the sounds of it?
what would you suggest regarding watering / feeding in a heated / non heated propigator?
Again thank you for your help you have made things alot clearer.
you dont need a dome to root.. but it makes life easier... you can use a cheap tray or whatever to sit the roots on.. the dome just helps to hold in moisture for clones and seeds starters.. but as long as you keep them moist yourself you dont need anything fancy...
the clay pellets are fine... its basically just a neutral medium that holds the plant in place... since with aero your roots are actually suspended in air, the only thing the pellets are for is that purpose.. so those are perfectly fine...
so i checked the link you had in the original post and now i understand it more.. LOL its not an aeroponic system.. its just a drip feed system... now now i can help a little more with it...
the system does feed itself... it uses gravity to run the water from the reservoir into the pots... i am sure it drains from the bottom of the reservoir, so you'll want the reservoir above the pots so it draing down into them.. im guessing that its not a recirculating one, and its on a timer or something that regulates how much water is released.... so the only thing you would want to get for the actual reservoir would be an air stone or something like that to keep the nute solution mixed and well aerated...
since unless you can run the reservoir from somewhere cooler, or can keep the grow tent around 70 degrees, you might want to consider a water chiller also.. this is an expensive investment.. but well well well well worth it.. if temps are too warm in your reservoir is can cause slow/stopped growth in your plants, cook your roots, and cause algae to grow in your reservoir... temps at 85F and over are no good... you shouldnt have to worry about temps if you get one of these because you can set the temp and it keeps in there...
if you want to do the home remedy thing, you can freeze a bunch of water bottles and rotate them in and out as need to keep the temp around 70F in the reservoir... which is ideally what you want.. i struggled for the first few weeks of my hydro grow to keep my plants alive and get any growth out of them... my temps were around 85F all the way up to 95+ at times.. i got an aqua chiller and my plants have exploded with growth... it would have been on the top of my list of purchases if i would have known what a difference it would make.. just a suggestion tho...
now yes, an aero systems sprays its roots constantly.. but the system you have is a gravity feed system.. but it still will water itself.. you will want to invest in some good hydroponic nutes... technaflora, general hydroponics, fox farm, advanced nutes are names of good quality and time tested nutes.. what kind you get will depend on what sounds best to you and sounds like will work the best in your situation.. whether its a 2 or 3 part system, and what supplements you get will be up to how much money you have and how much work you want to do...
you will also want to get a ph and ec meter.. the ph meter will tell you what the ph of your reservoir is.. this is important because if it is to high or to low you will get nute lock out... you'll want to purchase some ph up and ph down to adjust this.. if you want to go the home remedy route you can use lemon juice or vinegar to lower it and baking soda to raise it... the ec will tell you the same thing as the ppm, which is the strength of your solution.. you ideally want a ppm around 1000 or so... but if you watch how your plants react to the nutes you can tell if they are wanting more or less...
its hard to say how much or how often to feed as i dont know much about the system.. it will say a recommended feeding schedule in it... or at least it should...
