Drip system adaptation, do i need an air stone?

Basically I would like to do a small sog grow in a 3'x2' area with 6-8 plants. Currently I am using a 45 gallon rubbermaid as a grow box, I would like to use that as both my reservoir and tray in a half drip system half DWC (if the roots make it that far). In a 4"x4" rockwool cube, the plants would be placed within a 1 gallon pot filled with hydroton until the roots reached the bottom of it. Ouce the roots reach the bottom I will place the pots into 2 gallon pots filled with hydroton. Eventually the roots would get to the bottom of that and spread throughout the reservoir. Of course I will have a layer of light proof plastic between the reservoir and the light. Preferably I'd like it if the roots didn't even make it to the reservoir so I wouldn't have to worry about root rot. How long would it take for the roots to get down that far? I'm going to be doing a short veg so would I beat the roots or should I put some air stones in there? Or could it work somewhat like a hempy bucket? Heres a basic drawing of what I mean, hope you guys like my futuristic looking pot

sounds like your making things more complicated than it really needs too be, the drip system should handle things just fine without setting your pots in your res, as for the roots they will stay in the one gallon pots naturally, unless your dead set on placing them on top of another pot, but once again not nessesarry.

I figured without having a separate res it would give me more vertical room which is somewhat limited. And I thought having them started in 1 gallon pots would help them establish a strong rootball before scattering through the 2 gallon pot and maximize space. Would a 1 gallon pot really be large enough to support a mature plant without effecting yield? I haven't been able to find much info on systems with under 3 gallon pots.

thanks for the help.

yeah a one gallon pot will doo just fine, if you are limited by vertical space is there room to fit another tray on the ground? if so you could just use another tray next to the res that sits on the floor and just use it as a drip system, i currently have a 30 in plant in a one gallon hydro set up and doesn't seem to be affecting it at all, now i also have a 25in plant in a 6x6x6 pot that is definatly rootbound/stunted, but still healthy, but if its that much of a concern then just use the 2gal pots instead of the one gal pots.

dr.greenthumb85 said:

yeah a one gallon pot will doo just fine, if you are limited by vertical space is there room to fit another tray on the ground? if so you could just use another tray next to the res that sits on the floor and just use it as a drip system, i currently have a 30 in plant in a one gallon hydro set up and doesn't seem to be affecting it at all, now i also have a 25in plant in a 6x6x6 pot that is definatly rootbound/stunted, but still healthy, but if its that much of a concern then just use the 2gal pots instead of the one gal pots.

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Thanks man I think ill probably be using 2 gallon instead. About how large do your plants get in the 1 gallon pots? About how many do you have per sq ft?

well, im fairly confident that i coult easy get a plant that was pushing 4 ft in a one gallon pot but that might be pushing it, right now my biggest girl is about 30 in untrained, i wanted to see what a full blown un trained plant looks like and its cool and all but the size of the plant and the amount of buds forming arn't as impressive as a trained plant. i had origionally planned on sog on my ebb/flow set ups, but i was having some trouble in the begginning with the veg side ph drifting too much and i stunted the hell out of them early on, but they grew out of it. so now i have 4 more going in my veg side that im trying to get those to grow out so i can cut clones and do an entire tray of lollipop plants, i'll be cramming those in there in 6in pots cause theres no need for a large area for the roots since i'll be flowering as soon as my roots are established in my clones. i'll be able to fit 16 in my tray but im also using a 400w hps with a philips ceramic metal halide bulb, such a nicer "white" light, and more productive imo.