I originally was trying to emulate an earth-box, with a liquid resevoir under the pot, and lining the bottom with gravel and perlite.
The soil mix has more perlite at the bottom and more vermiculite at the top, but the ratio is approximatly 40% potting soil, 45%perlite, and 15% vermiculite.
The pots are inside of a rubbermaid grow, and a small amount of water pools in the bottom. (Stupid me, I don't know if the water is below or above the gravel in the pots)
Should I get an airstone and take a more hydroponic approach, or just let the perlite do its thing and try to limit the amount of water in the bottom?
Would an airstone even work with so little water?
Maybe aeroponics or fogoponics... I could definately stand to raise the humidity... (37% is a bit low for a soil grow I think...)
They're under 3 100w (eq) CFLs.
Note- I'm currently growing vegetables in the box to make sure everything works properly. I won't be horribly upset if it fails. I'll just make corrections and try again.I originally posted this question at "Indoor Growing" forum, but wanted to get some feedback from hydroponic experts. ;)
A bunch of questions for a new guy...

i dont think the airstone will be needed in this soil/hempy combo. i have done something like this, where you keep a reservoir at the bottom for the deep water roots to feed on. i used hydroton pellets, but clean gravel/perlite should be fine (make sure you clean it well, put in some H2O2). As for the mix, that sounds like a decent ratio, make sure you have good soil and throw in dolomite lime to even the pH. In my experience, you should have a greater vermiculite concentration near the bottom, because this works with the reservoir as kind of a wick system pulling the water up to the roots. When I made mine i had (lets say in a several gallong bucket), a layer of hydroton pellets at the bottom (maybe an inch or more - also drilled a drainage hole for over flow about an inch or two above the bottom of the pot), then a layer of large vermiculite that covered the drain hole (otherwise perlite and soil will run out of it when you water), then the rest of my regular soil/perlite/vermiculite mix. on some i even got an old t-shirt, made a cloth rope, and put it in the bottom then throught he soil to the top as a wick system.

its a good idea but you probably wont need an airstone with little water. if there is extra in your botttom reservoir put the drainage hole in that way the plant wont have to deal with nasty stagnant water at the bottom. good luck keep us updated! check out my grow if you wanna see how i did it.

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