dwc,bubble buckets,airoponics?????????

Hi all,
After 3 attempts at NFT in a small space(3x8x7) thing are hard to manage even with growing only 2 plants at a time,I run out of space and and cant get to the back of the cupboard to do more thorough checks.So ive been reading up on diy bubble buckets, found a nice and easy design based on a 5 gallon bucket and I will be making a pair of them,but I dont understand how young plants (with a small root system) get fed and watered if the roots dont touch the nute solution yet?As far as I can gather the design Ive been looking at only has airstones in it-no water pump or misters? Is the net pot supposed to only just touch the nute solution? Also am I right in the understanding that you need lots of fine bubbles to A) make this thing work and B)stop the plants from drowing. Please dont think Im lazy as ive tried findin what I need to know with no real success.Can someone please help enlighten one confused Rastaman,Thanks,RM.

The airstones should be making enough bubbles to cause a decent spray of tiny droplets onto the hydroton or whatever you have the plants in. Just make the netpots are close enough to the water too get hit a little bit by the spray. Not too close though.

I'm in hte middle of my first grow and all i have is a couple buckets with 4 inch circular air stones...i'm only using 2 gallon buckets..5 will be much better.. just adjust hte water level once your roots start growing..Almost all my roots are sittin in the water since i'm only using 2 gallon buckets but from my understanding you want as little of hte roots laying in the the water as possible..5 gallon buckets should help that..i dripped some water (turkey baster)from hte top a few times a day in the beginning until the roots started to show..Not sure if its a must but probably didn't hurt...However it may mess up your PH a little bit..make sure you soak your hydroton and rockwool before you start...or whatever it is you use..

Check out my thread if you want.. The thread name is "Opie I need your help friend"

Hope this helped a little..

:joint1:

Just to add since i'm not sure i helped with all your questions..

air pump/stones feed the roots constant oxygen...thats the key to growing huge root systems and fast growing plants...At least thats what ive got out of the idea behind hydro..

You don't need any misters or drip system however some choose to have both..

I started with a 5 gallon bucket that had a small pump and a sprinkler that sprayed 4 - 3" netpots but moved them to their own buckets when they started theyre root system..But when i moved them i went to bigger netpots so the roots were covered by hydroton again...I just kept the water level at the bottom of hte pots and the bubbles bursting keeps everything wet...and like i said i dripped from the top a few times a day to be safe...the roots grow soooooooooooo damn fast its nuts...

To be honest man its a pretty simple process...just read, read and read some more...its not easy to get it perfect by any means but if you do some research you'll end up with some nice buds.. i'm almost done with my first grow and suprisingly didn't have to many problems...The only problems i had were because of my own error with nutrient levels...anyway good luck and post pictures...

That system is excellent, in fact it's what I use. However, I don't do the veg cycle in the 5G buckets, I use a smaller shallow system for that until they have more established root systems. If you filled you buckets up for the veg cycle you'd be wasting a ton of nutes.

Thanks guys,thats all I needed.peace.RM.