I try not to pay attention what happens on the east coast and I live in FL :P I was lucky and didnt get any of the storm though.

I hope you fair well in the storm and don't have too much of it.

Good news, bad news, good news
 

The good news is the hurricane blew threw and ruffled up the plants pretty good but they all survived the blow. Some tomatoes fell off but still have plenty of them still on the plant.

The bad news the power also went out very early Sunday. When I came out later in the day I see all the plants are now bending over because they are starving for a drink. I rigged up my garden hose to the last highest plant (watermelon) and put on the hose at very low steady pressure. Every 4 hours I would pour in 3 gallons of the nutrient water from the reservoir and plug up the end and would let it sit in there for an hour, then unplug and drain, again put on the garden hose. The watermelon plant comes back to life and looks good but the tops of almost all of the tomato plants are dead. I will have to clip the tops off soon.

Good news the power came back on today. Dumped everything left in the reservoir filled it with water and nutrients and got it up and running again. Will wait till tomorrow to see how the plants react.

Lesson learned for next year I will have a gas generator to work the air/water pump and other appliances in and outside of the house if the electric ever goes out again.

Another option might be to set up a small solar cell with a battery and inverter. That will give you a little while on a small pump and air pump. You can also use it on a regular basis to save a few cents on your regular electricity bill, or just have the small solar set charge a few batteries for emergencies.

I think harbor freight has like 30 dollar 12V solar set every now and then. A couple of those should be able to run the airpump and water pump pretty much full time, so would be more than adiquate for emergencies with the system.

You can probably get that set up for less than the cost of a generator.

I am happy to hear that the plants faired well with little loss. With hope there is a sucker on the tomatoes you haven't plucked off yet :P That will buy you some more time.

Already have a solar charger for my trolling motor battery on my boat. I'm still leaning towards getting a power generator just so I can have other necessities in the house (refrig, hot water heater, AC, lights, washer, dryer, and maybe TV) working until the power comes back on.

Oh definitly if you are going to power more with it :P I was just thinking the hydroponics and ignored the existance of your house there lol..

I was considering making a windmill alternator to hook to my car (take the tire off and run it at low speed) I could probably make about 3-6kw without too much stress on the car and I get decent fuel efficiency. (250HP at ~24MPH@peak torque) It is a standard so I would have to hang out in the car to get it going, but it has cruise control so I would be able to walk away for a bit lol. Not a regular usage item, but it would definitly be a useful little tool to have for emergencies. and of course it could be adapted to fit what ever else I had I could make spin lol. A battery bay being another part of the system of course. It would be a great suppliment to a solar/wind system should you have low wind cloudy days.

Plucked off a dozen large tomatoes yesterday, cut up 2 of them to put on tacos. Going to make some chicken cutlets with homemade marinara sauce and a garden salad for tonight. All I can say is homegrown tomatoes taste great! Some had large cracks on top, not sure why that would happen so I just cut them out when I'm ready to use them.

The watermelons have slowed down a lot in growth not sure if this is normal. They aren't big enough to feed a family, they are basically large enough for 1 person to eat.

Here are some pictures I took before I plucked off the ripe tomatoes.

It's been a while since I posted last. I have trimmed all the plants down to where the last of the tomatoes are growing. I will break everything down by the end of this month and will take pictures of the inside workings.

I had plenty of fresh picked tomatoes last month, some were very big. Also had 3 watermelons that didn't grow any bigger than a basketball but were nice and sweet. Here are some pictures I took the last few days.