so would it be impossible to use a DWC bucketeer without a root system already?
There is an Ostrich here that does it, so it can be done. It is much much much much more work and efforts and they will grow slowly.
When I started my present grow, I checked my plants at 7:30 in the morning when t hey were one and half inches tall and they all looked great. When Ig ot home from work at 6:00, one was dead and dry as coould be, the feeder tube got disconnected from one cup, by accident..
If I had been home and poured water on it every 4 hours, it would have survived.
In a DWC, you are not going to be there to pour water on it every 4 hours, you must sleep sometimes.
If you had an air pump twice as powerful as needed and twice as many air stones as needed, you could get some bouncing bubbles to bounce up and hit the cubes and possibly make it.