As I understand things as of now and I’m still figuring things out it depends on what ingredients you use to make the soil.
Some are slow release and not immediately available to the plants like kelp meal, Neam meal and oyster shell powder and they take time to be consumed by the soil critters to be available to the plants.
Some like blood meal or bat quano are very water soluble and are available to the plants pretty quickly and this is where “cooking” may be required. The reason I will give the mix time before using it to get the biological life going doing their thing and eating the nutrients and getting them into a plant ready form (critter poo) so that when the plant needs a particular nutrient it is bio available for the plant to use. Water is the catalyst added to the soil that gets things going. Water is life for us and the micro herd critters like bacteria and fungi etc.
@Budbrother may be able to expand on or correct my above thoughts and I’ll defer to him as he has a much better understanding than I do.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts my friend, I do enjoy the lessons from both Bud and yourself 
Yes my friend all good just waiting on my air con to turn up so I can start again😫
F#~^k QLD is hot 
I know what you mean my friend,
don’t think I’ll grow seriously until after summer, unless I can get my hands on some insulation for the grow zone…
I’m running 29C even with insulation (all the fans running)…its cooler outside under the trees…the heat is going to force me to abandon my grow plans…definitely also thinking of starting later in the season next year…
Oreo
@Tenga, sorry for dropping such a long winded story in your thread, as you can tell, I feel quite strongly about bullying and intimidation.
I have sent you a pm on the other site… 
That was fine Oreo. I love reading ur thoughts and perspectives.
I answered ur pm!
If you don’t delete that post well I’ll I’ll I’ll …be fine with it…haha
Agreed
Mean people suck
@Enlightened420 just wanted to drop by and say hi and I hope all is well with you and the family!! Stay Safe and Lit My Friend!!! 
@Ah-hee
Thanks for dropping by my friend.
I’m doing great, things in my world are super green and I’m gearing up for my next grow, how are you, you must have been busy, haven’t seen you around much?
@Enlightened420 I see things are really green for you! Jealous! Im so glad all is well with you my friend! I’ve been really sick, slowly getting back to myself. Dam bronchitis. Also prepping for my next grow round! Dropping seeds in the next few days for that.
Stay Safe and Lit My Friend!!
Sure it aint covid?
@Cannabian yes I’ve been tested multiple times and had x-rays to confirm. Covid negative just a smoker with bronchitis 
Yuk! Wish you all the best with that! Breathing is kinda important!
Received a few much awaited packages recently. Getting in early this time and plan to run several trials, prior to growing, I’m hoping this will eliminate most of the issues I ran into last grow round.
@Nicky any words of wisdom to share, before I begin assembling the system? Also the system came with 100L res, I already have a 200L res of the same design, do you think 200L is overkill?
My plan is to have the autopots set up in a 4 x 4 section of my 4 x 8 dual purpose tent, then have same number of plants in the other section, haven’t fully decided on which comparison I will run.
Living soil vs super soil
Or Living soil vs Super soil vs coco/hydro. At this stage I’m still open to all suggestions…
Ohhhh nice!
Another great addition to the autopot team! Welcome aboard @Enlightened420 stoked for you.
Definitely soil vs coco then you will realizing you want to run your whole tent in coco autopots and you’ll use your other rez!
I used the 30g /114L Res. Ive ran 5 plants on it but prefer to run 3-4 on it that will. Run me about a week in summer at full bloom. So I always know I can leave home for a week and my grow will be fine just make sure your lights are high enough if your in veg lol.
Words of wisdom:
Use as few valves as possible, if your going to get a clog. It will happen on a valve.
They say you need a valve at the end to bleed 1L a week or something… I’ve never done it but I run chemgro (same style as Jack’s) so nutrient is very important get high quality nutrients.
Pro tip, raise your Res as high as you can while. Still comfortable to fill it. Higher the red the better the hydrostatic pressure and thus less chance for clogs.
50/50 coco perlite is probably the cheapest option that is also one of if not the best preforming.
To be honest I would. Love to see you do a grow of two with clay pebbles in the bottom vs two without while still in the 50/50 mix.
I had my biggest two plants yet have clay pebbles in the bottom (took me 24hr to PH them but man the yeilds were so good, although may have been genrtics because they are the same genetics the other two were different).
Ensure your aquavalves are seated correctly, double check them. Watch your connections for leaks once the systems is full and the trays are on.
Top wster until leafs hit the edge of the pot then turn system on.
Copper side of root socks in, towards the pot.
You have the new aquavalve 5 with bigger lines so you’ll probably never get a clog because ie haven’t had one yet and I don’t even run a filter. While some people do.
