clay pellets advice sought.

hi gurus. When I start my next grow, I am going to use clay pellets instead of organic peat free compost, as the compost had trouble with midgies or fungus gnats to be precise. http://gardening.about.com/od/gardenproblems/a/FungusGnats.htm

So I fill my plant pot with the clay pellets. How much water should I add, and should I use 'nutes' immediately in the water mix, before planting in the seedling ?


Also, how often should I expect to need to water the clay pellets ?

Also, is it worth adding some 'perlite' what i bought a bag of as well, and/or 'cana terra proffesional' which I also ( mistakenly) bought a bag of ? ( I wanted the coco medium but the terra pro is a peat based compost )



Ta for any help.

you mean your using hydrotten? So, what type of hydro setup do you have? I use them in netpots, and they rock.
Myself I dont give seedlings anything but water until they are ready to go into tote.

Hydroton doesnt hold moisture.So u better be watering constantly.litterary.Im thinking u r doomed

hydrotron does hold water/moist just not as much as other mediums. if your flooding, flood three to four times a day.
to back up my statement on it holding water is based of my use of it, ive had a pump go out and my buckets
failed to flood for 24hr and I never even saw any sign in the plant that it was going dry.

back to the rock, wash it good before you use it theres alot of dust and grime that can clog stuff.
when your flooding the rock put enough rock in your fllod table/buckets to keep the flood line just
below the surface, this will stop algie from forming on the surface. also dont add perlite

not sure what you are planning on using (hydro system wise) but it sounds like you want to do hempy bucket/buckets. if this is the case the hydroton will work quite well you just cant use it in a regular pot you will have to use a bucket (3 gal, 5 gal, 10 gal up to you on size really) with no drainage holes what you will want to do is measure up the side of the bucket 2" and drill some of your own drainage holes (i drill 2) this is so when you water not all the water escapes there will remain 2" layer at the bottom mimicking mother nature and how roots actually dig down till they get to water. if this is what you are planning to do just make sure you only feed with nutes every three waterings as the nutes will accumulate at the bottom if feed all the time and will leave you wondering why your plants are dying.

@drgreentm,
Good advice given above. + Rep.