The first step to starting your grow is to germinate your seeds (DWC Germination Guide) or acquire clones if you are lucky enough to have access to them. Ideally you should be taking your own clones using a DIY aeroponics cloner. Using clones will shave 2-3 weeks off your grow time and guarantee your plants are female (assuming you clone from a female mother plant). Clones also replicate the phenotype of the parent plant, unlike seeds which can produce of variety of different phenotypes despite all being the same strain. Professional breeders will “pheno hunt” by germinating dozens, even hundreds, of the same strain and selecting for desirable traits. This isn’t viable on a small scale so you’re playing a bit of a lottery with seeds.
If using Rockwool cubes for germination they should always be soaked in pH 5.5 water. Seedlings can be transferred to your DWC reservoir as soon they have visible roots, just make sure the rockwool is partially submerged in the nutrient solution. I.e. during the early stages you will have the water level in your DWC reservoir much higher than normal (90-95% full). Rockwool cubes should always be covered by hydroton, algae will grow on rockwool that is exposed to light.
Feminized seeds are preferred when germinating from seeds. Feminized seeds are created by exposing a mother plant to colloidal silver. This creates offspring that only have female genetic, and are thus guaranteed to be female.
Seeds and clones can both be started using rockwool cubes. Rockwool transitions fairly well to DWC, although it can be a source of algae growth if exposed to light. You can use neoprene collars to clone without rockwool and go straight to hydroton which is my preferred method (see: DIY Cloner Build). Soil is not recommended for starting the plants as the soil is hard to remove from the roots and will pollute your water with debris.
