Hey Tstation,

I am actually in your exact same situation. I used to put my plants in my tray in rockwool cubes but I was not happy with the results. Rockwool stayed too wet and the roots just didn't seem to develop to their full potential, so I started using individual pots and instead of putting my 1" rockwool cubes into 4 or 6" cubes I just put the 1" directly into 6"x6" square pots filled with hydroton then placed those in my tray with even more hydroton so that the roots could grow out of the pots and into the hydroton in the tray. I am still not pleased with this because it is A LOT of hydroton SOOOO....

For my next set up I am going to put lids on my trays and cut out 12 5" circles per 3x3 tray. I'm gonna put 5" net pots into the lids so that the pots are suspended a few inches above the bottom of the tray.

I am going to turn my trays into a RSWC (recycled shallow water culture) and have the pumps on 24 hours a day with a bunch of air stones in the tray. I want to do this because I am always impressed with the root systems that I see on other peoples DWC systems. I don't see any problem in doing this. I have seen a number of homemade DWC/SWC systems using Rubbermaid containers with multiple plants that work perfectly well, and this is the exact same concept.

My concern with doing a flood and drain with this setup is: Since there is no medium to retain water for the roots then how often would we have to flood? I suppose you could flood and drain A LOT considering that DWC works just fine. So what if you just constantly let your tray fill then drain; fill then drain; fill then drain... you get the idea.

Anyway, I would be really curious to see what you decide to do. I am not going to switch my system for a few months because I have to wait till my current grow is done, so we should stay in touch.

I'm all for creativity, and trying new ways, so screw the conventional way try something new!! I say you hook up the res and put the air stones in your tray, and try the RSWC I described above. Consider letting your tray drain completely once a day just to make sure your roots are getting all the oxygen they need, and maybe drain it completely at night since the roots won't really use the water in the dark. That is what I'm gonna do with my trays anyway!

I hope this helped a little. If you decide to get creative please post pictures! I'm really curious!