best system for tomatoes?

[GpsFrontier]

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).

what would be best for a tomato plant about 2x2x4 feet in size?

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).

[animus_divinus]

i guess in an absolute emergency for a day or so i could water it manually with a watering can while the power was down... what would be the best grow medium to hold onto moisture without it absorbing or bleeding off enough acids to change Ph levels?

[GpsFrontier]

My favorite growing medium is coco chips, and that's what I used in the 5 gallon bucket broccoli drip system. Coco coir and coco chips are basically the same thing, their both made from coconut husks. Both coco chips, and coir hold moisture very well. The difference is the partial size, coco chips are small chunks about the size of small wood chips you would use in your BBQ. Coco coir has a consistency more like potting soil or peat moss. Both are pH neutral, so they wont change your pH. Just make sure you rinse it real well, just to wash out most of the color. It can color/tint the nutrient solution. The color wont hurt the plants or anything, it just looks better to me in the long run.

The brick in the picture is a 2 cubic foot block. I usually fill the bottom of the 5 gallon bucket about 1/3 of the way with cleaned and sanitized rock to add weight, as well as aid in good drainage. Doing that, that one 2 cubic foot block is enough for 4, five gallon buckets. If you don't have a local hydroponic shop, you may be able to find it at a nursery. I recently noticed our local ACE hardware store carries it. It's also used as a landscaping ground cover.

[animus_divinus]

well.. i think ill look into getting the coco products around here.. im in a rather small town so.. no guarantees on that.. might just order it online

but yeah.. a drip system should do fine, ill get a cheap watering can for backup...

ill take a look at the different drip systems though.. some seem to use an aquarium air pump to move water, others are just a simple fountain pump, but they all seem to have a ring of black hose attached to a PVC T that dips into the bucket

lucky for me my local hardware store carries all this stuff in bulk so i can buy what i need for cents per foot

[perzyk]

Originally Posted by animus_divinus

well.. i think ill look into getting the coco products around here.. im in a rather small town so.. no guarantees on that.. might just order it online

but yeah.. a drip system should do fine, ill get a cheap watering can for backup...

ill take a look at the different drip systems though.. some seem to use an aquarium air pump to move water, others are just a simple fountain pump, but they all seem to have a ring of black hose attached to a PVC T that dips into the bucket

lucky for me my local hardware store carries all this stuff in bulk so i can buy what i need for cents per foot

You will need drip fittings as well... You can get them from an online hydro store.

[GpsFrontier]

There are some drip systems that use a air pump to raise water up to the drip ring, they seem to work OK for single plant systems, but will get quite complicated to expand into multiple plant systems. I have never used an air pump for water flow in a drip system myself. Also those systems require a reservoir just below the bucket holding the plant, and naturally because of space those reservoirs are usually small. Then in order to increase the reservoir size it would require a water pump to circulate water between a larger second reservoir, and the smaller one just below the plant.

I posted this link before (http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/for...w-systems.html), but this drip system is about as simple as it gets for me.

Simply put it uses 5 gallon buckets filled with growing medium for the plants roots. The water (and nutrients) are pumped up to the top drip ring, and slowly drip out soaking the growing medium on its way down to the bottom of the bucket. At the bottom of the bucket is a through hole (also called a bulkhead fitting), big enough so the water will drain out faster than it drips in (so the water wont back up in the bucket). That drain simply runs back into the reservoir, where it gets pumped back up to the drip ring again. If you want I can e-mail you my complete instructions on building it. If you want me to e-mail you the instructions, click on the link to my website in my signature "Home Hydroponic Systems" and send me a e-mail to the address on the contact us page asking for them. It's not complicated, but the instructions are in PDF so I'm unable to post them to this forum. The system I built is for 4 plants, but it's easily scaled to as many plants as you want. One plant, or twenty plants, the principal is still the same. The only real difference would be the size of the reservoir to accommodate more plants.

The reservoir I used for this system is the 18 gallon storage tote I got at wal-mart for under $4, but in the future I would use a larger reservoir for 4 large plants like that (live and learn). Each plant could drink as much as 2 gallons of water a day when they got large, and that caused huge fluctuations in nutrient concentrations because combined they could drink almost half the reservoirs water. But for 1 or 2 plants that reservoir size should work OK for plants that big (you don't need to fill it to the top while the plants are small). And it's real easy to switch over to a larger one later if necessary.

P.S.
You don't really need special drip emitters (fittings). They just tend to clog anyway, as well as a need a certain amount of back pressure to work also. I just cut the tubing to size for the drip ring. Take a paperclip and heat the tip with a candle, then poke some holes in the tubing for the water to drip out of. Again real simple, and cheep.