Opinions of my new idea for Drip or Ebb and Flow system
 

I have been playing around with an idea for a new set of growing pots for tomatos and I put together a small 2 plant setup I made out of PVC, and I am wanting to get people's opinions of how they think this is going to work. I am using 2 3.75" net pots and putting thim in a piece of 4" PVC pipe that connects to a 4"x2" coupler, which has elbows and tees that connect to a central 2" pipe for return to my resevior, one end of the 2" pipe has a 1/2" polly tube fitting to go back to my tank, the other side has a cleanout plug that I can remove and connect another 2 or more growing pots. Here is a couple of pictures that may make this easier to figure out. So far I have about $25 invested for the 2 pots, but I think a couple of more would be a bit cheaper.

http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/for...5-img-0422.jpg
http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/for...4-img-0423.jpg

For a big tomato plant there may not be enough space for the roots to grow.

Also, your setup is ok for a drip system but for ebb&flow, how do you plan to maintain a certain water level during the flood cycle?

Good thought about root space, I can always extend the 4" PVC a couple of inches to raise the basket some and give more room for the roots to grow.

I am going to start with drip (since that's what I know), but for Ebb and Flow, I thought I could use a 2" to 1/2" adapter and use 1/2" PVC upright pipe with 2 elbows on the end with the cleanout plug to maintain fluid level and for the nutrient return.

Kind of Like This

http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/for...pipe-elbow.jpg

As for increasing the size of the top part, I'm not sure what variety's of tomato's that you plan to grow, but from my experience I would not go with anything less than 5 gallons of root space for large, and no less than 3 gallons for small bush variety's. Personally I think those tubes would become clogged in no time. You can trim them but you should consider the need for doing that in the design, and make it easy to do while the plants are growing.

That looks like more money than just buying all the standard hydro farm stuff that works perfect and is already black?

5 gallon buckets are best. and cheapest. i just ran a test on painting free white buckets i got from restraunts. $1 for flat cheap black spray paint at lowes did 3 buckets per can. Now i'm heat testing them on fence post hangars around the house. first issue i found is i think they get to hot? but the plants are looking very happy (dirt in them right now) i'm sure its killing my bacterias and other helpers in the compost like worms. so my plan is the cheap 41 can of flat white spray paint over the black. so then i have no light in the bucket and white for reflection of heat. still cheap to do. Also i have begun to switch to round river rock pea gravel? since i do a drip system. i can buy it for $10 a 1/2 yard at atime in my truck. or a few wheel barrels worth which is alot. i pay $45 now for clay pellets. I'm terrible about re using the pellets, i seem to just buy more and store the old ones.

My buckets have two tomatoes out the bottom that are being trained dow the fence in opposite directions of each other and giant peppers out the top.

I agree on the buckets, but wouldn't use paint. I also recommend against black for the outside surface. I have some black buckets, but they are too expensive. I just use cheap $2 buckets from the hardware store for the most part. I wrap foil on the outside. Aluminum foil will help keep the temps regulated and is still opaque. Watercat, you might try that sometime, too. A lot less work than painting and if it tears you can always just put another piece over that.

A cheapo mylar emergency blanket could do the trick, too, and would probably be really easy to attach to the bucket with a spray adhesive. That should be more durable and longer lasting than the aluminum foil and still inexpensive.

I advise against the emergency blankets. I also thought that was a great idea at one point. Only not for the buckets. I used it for the walls of my inside grow area. I figured, "Why pay 20 times more for the mylar at the hydro store than the $.99 emergency blanket from Wal-Mart?" Well, because the emergency blankets lose their silver coating easily. I got mine wet from misting to maintain humidity. The silver stuff came off everywhere it got wet after a short time. I used RO water, so it's slightly acidic. Just like rain water. Maybe that was why. Anyway, I ended up with translucent sheets of thin plastic. I guess there is a reason that mylar for hydro grow rooms is much thicker and unbelievably expensive. Then again, maybe that stuff is just as worthless. I'll never know as I won't use the stuff again for anything but what it is intended for.

How interesting. There is a brand of them sold on Amazon in packs that we have used as rain slickers without any problem. If the RO water is like rain water, perhaps that is an indicator that certain brands are made better than others. I don't know, but at least it wouldn't be expensive to find out.