Given up on rising tomatoes outside. In this area the blight kills them in August, In my unheated greenhouse I have a few plants, 8 this year, and I still get way more than I can use and it is Nov 5. With a little heat from a wood stove I usually have tomatoes until Thanksgiving in southern NH. I raise them in a cheap home made dutch bucket system, have 24 buckets, tomato hooks, etc and have used the system for about 10 years now. Original cost was about $250 for the system and I bought a thousand of the clips for at the time about $10, now up to $17 and I just throw them away. I made my racks out of 2 by 4, 12 buckets per bench, and a chunk of plastic pipe. Home - FarmTek - Hydroponic Fodder Systems, Farming & Growing Supplies, Hoop Barns, Poultry & Livestock Equipment, High Tunnels, Greenhouses & More Use dutch buckets, cost about $5 each. Empty the growing media out of them in fall and soak in bleach in my water container to sterilize them. Been using for 10 years now and still good. Have to sterilize well or replace or you will carry disease over. Bato Buckets with 2 elbows | Cropking Use tomato bobbins and sterilize them as I do buckets. Cut twine off in fall and replace in few years when twine is gone. 50 cents per bobbin so I really don't consider them a long term use. .Bato Bobbins | Cropking Made supporting wires out of locally bought stuff used for fences. Use heavy gauge wire and wire tensioner. Cost me about $30 for 3 wires strung from cross supports on greenhouse. Kept it close to ends as there is a lot of weight on them when plants are grown. Bought storage containers at Walmart and used them for supply water tanks. Less than $10 rather than about $100.. Used low pressure pumps and air stones for tank to keep it stirred and clean. Used drip stakes with no drippers. Drippers require several pounds pressure to operate and plug up. Use ones that don't limit flow as the bato bucket returns the excess water to the holding tank anyway. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYTKXN3R/?tag=survivalmonke-20 Picked up low pressure pumps locally, usually used for water features in landscaping. Picked up tubing and such locally as well. Bought timers, air stones, etc locally as well as tubing and pipe. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L54HB83/?tag=survivalmonke-20 For the buckets I use perilite with some pebbles over the drain and a piece of screening to keep fines out of the tank and clog up pump. Buy locally at greenhouse supply for about 1/4 of what local garden shops want. Feed with a complete feed. Add to water as stated, must use 2 pails and weigh carefully. One purchase usually lasts me a year, Replace water in tanks every 2 weeks to account for plants using more of one mineral etc than others and thus don't have to measure and test . Do need to check ph and adjust for water ph. Find pool supply tests work fine. https://www.amazon.com/MASTERBLEND-4-18-38-Complete-Combo-Fertilizer/dp/B071HFDVB2?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&smid=A1A3MPEUS64FBE&th=1 Don't have to spend $1,000 for a kit, can do it yourself on the cheap. Most important thing is keeping the plants pruned by limiting the side growth and watching everything.
Thankyou for your comprehensive and thoughtful reply. In some climatic zones hydroponics and greenhouse growing are the most reliable way of producing a decent crop of edible tomatoes, or most vegetables, come to think of it. Hydroponics cuts losses due to mildew and other diseases, provided that one attends to the hygiene requirements of hydroponic equipment and growing methods. Thankyou for the 'Dutch Bucket" reference in your previous post...looked up and learned more about it...and the following You Tube clips provide comprehensive , but simple explanations of how the system works, and how to set up a DIY system with common, inexpensive components.
Works well with herbs that like water, tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers,etc. Has to be limited to plants that like a lot of water. Big problem is that if you buy a commercial system, costs to much. Can raise a lot of food in a small area in a greenhouse or high tunnel and protect it from most predators, 2 legged, 4 legged, bugs, and disease. You have to be very careful of air flow and keeping it clean and disinfecting between crops. For a few hundred, if you get in bulk, you can store enough inputs for several years of crops. I consider it part of my long term food supply and it adds a lot of "comfort" foods. Tomatoes, greens, squash, peppers, herbs, etc. Has the advantage of in a sense moving part of your land a few hundred miles south for weather purposes and with some small amount of heat, extending your growing season by months. With shade cloth and solar power for fans, people in warmer climates can use them 12 months a year and even in the north with proper selection and timing, you can get usable food out of them with out heat. Here is one good example. https://www.fourseasonfarm.com/ The one I like best for design of the dutch bucket systems was the following. Built my system about 10 years ago, wood table made out of 2 by 4 and not a solid top The buckets used with the drain pull water from bottom and leave about 3 in of water in bottom so if pump or tubing fails, it doesn't dry out for quite a while. Found that if you shop around on line, can often find parts from a greenhouse supply or such for 1/2 of what amazon charges or 1/ 10 what buying a complete system. https://www.instructables.com/Dutch-Bucket-Hydroponic-System/ Miricle grow and some other tomato foods won't work here. No limestone so water is very low in calcium etc. High in other minerals. Had best luck with 3 part fertilizers and adding them to water as needed. Have used organic. Neither fish nor sea weed worked alone, 50 50 of each worked out fine and grew very good tomatoes, but it costs a lot more, isn't as well suited to long term storage, and smells. Up to you, it is much more organic and if that is what you want, works well.
For indeterminate tomatoes, I've found cheap nylon string trellises to work really well. Just use something to support them, and the tomato plants will weave their way through the square openings. Had two grape tomato plants in a 100 gallon grow bag, with a string trellis, 5' x 15', suspended in and on either side of the grow bag. Those two plants produced like crazy, until the high heat of Texas summer.
You ever try shade cloth in the hottest part of the year. It increased the amount I harvested and delayed bolting by several weeks. Used 50 % shade and full airflow under it. That and fans with a mister brought my temps down in the greenhouse at 2 pm by about 20 degrees.
