Well yes, given the question witch will die first a plant in a water culture system, or a
drip system in case of a power outage, as I mentioned there are a lot of variables that will affect that outcome. But in general most likely the plant in the drip system would be worse off and/or die first. However power outages are not really a concern to me, but I know they may be more of a problem to people in other areas. We on occasion do get power outages, mostly between July and October (monsoon season). But they rarely last very long, we may have one or two that last more than an hour the whole season. The biggest issue for me with regards to power outages, is the timer. I just need to make sure my digital timer has a good back up battery in it (to hold the memory). My analog timers just start right back up where they left off like a analog clock does. At worst I just need to reset the time on the analog timers.
However if the digital timer dosen't have a good backup battery, all the timer settings will be lost. In that case even if the power is only out for a few seconds, the
pump wont run again until I reset all the settings. But I wouldn't really have a problem if it didn't anyway, because I mostly use the digital timer on my drip systems. And when your using a lot of
growing medium (like a filled five gallon bucket), the growing medium will hold a good amount of moisture for quite a while. Like I mentioned I did with my broccoli plants and often forgot to plug the pump back in, then didn't even know it for over 24 hours. Yet still never saw any signs of wilting from them. Realistically I could have just ran the pump once or twice a day (instead of the 7 times I had it set for).
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what would be best for a tomato plant about 2x2x4 feet in size?
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I'm not quite sure what you mean with this question? I'm guessing you plan to grow the plant up to 4 feet, but I'm not sure if the question is about lighting, type of system, watering cycles etc.. Or all of the above.
If your planing to use the 5 gallon bucket as both the growing container, as well as the reservoir (in the same bucket), that sounds like a typical water culture setup (weather you drip
nutrients or not). I know your limited in space, but a typical drip system would have the growing chamber (bucket), and reservoir separate. I would also use at least a 10 gallon reservoir for the 1 plant. It's the larger reservoir size that will give you less fluctuations in
nutrient strength, as well as pH swings (not the water delivery system, bucket, or growing medium). I can get 18 gallon storage totes at wal mart for about $4, and I use them for small reservoirs (I just light proof them first).
P.S.
I should say that you can grow tomato plants in any of the 6 types of hydroponic systems (drip, water culture, NFT, ebb & flow,
aeroponic, wick). But just like anything else each type has it's own set of advantages and disadvantages, both in the type of system, as well as how it's designed and/or built. I don't want to make it sound confusing, I just want to help explain the pro's and cons, and hope to help you decide what works best for your situation. As well as be aware of likely issues before you experience them from my experiences (if I can).