I’m growing tomatoes in soil and hydroponically, the hydroponically grown tomatoes are now six times larger than the soil grown tomato plants. The hydroponic tomato plants grow dramatically faster than the soil plants because the roots don’t have to work hard to find nutrients.

Growing hydroponically is very easy to do. You can start from seeds, which adds another month or two to the growing process, or buy tomato plants at the store and wash off the soil in the roots. I start with seeds, because I can have the tomato variety I want, and I’m not limited by what the garden center is selling.

The process of growing hydroponically does not use soil. You can start growing with hydroponics on a small scale of one plant or ramp up to giant greenhouses larger than many football fields in size.

I grow my tomato plants in black five gallon buckets with six inch net pots built into the bucket tops. I drill holes in the bucket tops top hold the round tomato cages. The tomato plants grown hydroponically will grow taller than the tomato cages. An air stone is put in each bucket and connected to an air pump similar to aquarium air pumps. Injecting air in the nutrient makes a huge difference in the growth rate compare to not using air. The black bucket color is important because translucent colors let light into the buckets, which causes algae growth, which will be a big mess.

The hydroponic nutrient is cheap to make using the three part dry mix of Masterblend fertilizer, calcium nitrate, and epsom salt. I also use General Hydroponics pH up to set the pH at 6.

You could place the bucket inside a larger decorative planter pot or inside a larger planter box made of wood or stone, to conceal the bucket.

Growing with hydroponics is easy to learn by watching free YouTube videos. After you start growing hydroponically and see how dramatically better and faster the plants grow, you probably won’t grow the tomato plants in soil anymore. I had many extra tomato plants that were started from seed that I planted in soil.

When the tomato plants get large, they can consume up to 2-1/2 gallons of nutrient per day! There’s never any weeding when you grow hydroponically!

If you need help in starting to grow hydroponically, I can help you do that. Using a dead fish as fertilizer is an old Indian trick, but will become a horrible mess if animals smell and dig up the dead fish. The animals can smell and detect the buried fish much better than you can with your nose.

just an FYI
 

'Fish Head's' was a gag song i remember back in high school. they typically played it in the am to get people to wake up, supposedly in a silly mood, on a local rock station.. Dr Demento hosted a sunday eve radio show (in the NY area) that frequently played this song, along with the "Curley Shuffle" & other comedy songs.

We always planted ours with a handful of bone meal. Then used Epsom salts later. Nummy.

Doesn’t matter what you put in hole. These tomatoes have no taste.

Cherry tomatoes are the only hope for summer. It's too hot at night for fruit to set.

Buy fish oil. Fish emulsion on amazon. Mix With water and you can use once every week or two weeks.

Wow! Impressive post. Thanks for sharing your knowledge in such detail. I don’t love tomatoes enough to do all of that but it reminds me of something I value but others don’t. I recently got a card making rubber stamp that says “Of course it’s handmade. Why would I spend $7 when I could buy $90 in craft supplies?” Tomayto, tom-at-oh

Fish emulsion worked for me in Indiana but it’s liquid dead fish so it may attract the same critters as a fish would. We called it “fish farts” because it was so stinky.

I’m guessing that planting any fish products in the ground would likely attract things you don’t want in your yard such as rodents.

I remember, many years ago, going on a tour of Disney World’s hydroponic gardens. They were quite impressive and at the time were the source of vegetables for their resort. I am assuming they still do that. If you haven’t seen it you really should.

I have tried many times in the summer here to grow tomatoes 🍅 it doesn’t work... to hot and even the bees hibernate in the summer here. Plant in September and March. I get 2 crops a year. Also the small tomatoes 🍅 do best here , sweet 100 etc. but f

The other thing we did for a large garden in Connecticut was to collect seaweed at the ocean. Work it in in the fall, let it decay over winter and retill in spring. Lots of nitrogen

Loved Dr. Demento back in the day, great bit.

Give a man a fish head he plants for a day. Teach him how to fish for fish heads he plants for a lifetime! :clap2:

I remember that, too. Actually, though, there are people who say fish heads are the tastiest part of a fish, or at least the cheeks. Check it out on YouTube.

Dr. Demento is still alive, by the way. He plays a song I wrote on his radio show. It’s called “Battery Boy (The Vibrator Song)”. You can find it on YouTube. Too risqué to post here.