Aerogarden is fairly easy to use. I would recommend you soak your pods first. You can use tap water. My tap water is fairly hard at 430PPM. I through in some lemon so it neutralized chlorine and makes the water more acidic. Lemons have vitamin c. Plus it does make the water so calcified in the system which it’s pain to clean.
You can put 8ml for plant food and then add another 8ml plant food 2 weeks later. It grow very fast. I grew bok choy and rocket. It was ready to harvest in 2 weeks. It’s really up to you if you want harvest or keep on growing until week 4.
After I month I would dump the water and change it. It’s really up to you if you want to flower them to have more seeds to grow another cycle.
So far I love the aerogarden harvest.