How to Grow Tomatoes in a Hydroponic Garden

If you are the kind who likes to have their tomatoes fresh and juicy straight from the garden everyday of the year, then hydroponics is for you. You can just as easily grow your own tomatoes as you can buy them from the market in season. Growing hydroponic tomatoes results in produce that is superior in nutritional value and flavor than the soil-grown ones. After all, you would know exactly what has been put into the plant. Besides that, the controlled environment of the hydroponic garden ensures the same flavor and ripeness all 365 days.

The way to get started is as follows:

Start at the seed stage with one-inch rock wool starter cubes in a standard nursery tray with dome. You can soak these cubes in water with pH of 4.5. You can have sprouted seedlings when you keep the covered tray at a moist and temperature of 20 – 25 degrees centigrade. Then these sprouted seedlings can be transferred to a place where only the shoots (definitely not the roots) can be exposed to fluorescent lights for at least twelve hours a day. The domes can be removed now. After about ten days to two weeks, the true leaves will appear. This means that the plants can now be transplanted into the actual hydroponic garden.

Tomatoes are very sensitive to light. They have to have just the correct amount otherwise the flavor and the colour gets altered. Theoretically, the ideal lighting for tomatoes is 1000 foot-candles for 18 hours a day. Being day-plants, these tomatoes do better when they don’t have direct exposure to sunlight.

The irrigation method for tomatoes is of two types – the drip irrigation or the ebb and flow.

In drip irrigation, the nutrient solution is pumped from a reservoir through drip emitters and it is circulated back by gravity. It is a continuous process while the lights are on. As long as the feeding is constant, the root system gets to grow in the least area giving maximum produce. You have to keep a check on the emitters that tend to get clogged. For a lower scale – home grower, there is something called the expando system which is basically single pots linked by a tube providing the nutrients. Porous rocks form the medium.

The ebb and flow requires the use of tables from 1' X 2' to 4' X 8’ that hold many plants together. These will alternately flood and drain the plants. Then there is another technique suited for a novice grower – the deep water culture. This entire kit can be procured from the market.

To grow the perfect tomatoes hydroponically, the factors to keep in mind are: Lighting, pH levels, electrical conductivity, temperature, nutrients and humidity. Keep a check on the level of all the above and in case of a change in the look or behavior of the plant, note the change in these levels. Early detection of any ailment or deficiency can save your hydroponic tomato plants. With a little patience and some effort, you can enjoy ripe and tasty tomatoes all the year around.

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