Well it's been a month for these tomato's now. The weather up until the last 4-5 days has been cold, cloudy and even rain. But despite the weather the tomato's have been able to grow. The chicken wire around the buckets is for the benefit of the rabbits (mischievous little buggers). I haven't changed the
nutrient solution yet. I started with 9 gallons in the reservoir for the first 2 weeks. But because the plants were still relatively small and the capacity of the reservoir, I just added 6 new fresh gallons of nutrient solution to the reservoir. For a total of 15 gallons in it right now.
I have checked the pH about twice a week, but other when mixing the
nutrients the pH has remained stable at about 6.0. The water temp in the reservoir seems to stay right around the low 60's, time will tell how it does in the summer. I will need to add more pipe insulation to the PVC tubing, as well as the black vinyl tubing (possibly even the buckets) before it starts to get hot. Or the nutrient solution temp will rise to much from simply flowing through the system. The weather is starting to warm significantly. By this weekend it will be almost 90 degrees. Also, the forecast for the next 10 days says it should be sunny, and in the mid to upper 80's. Should be perfect weather for the tomato's.