Tips for Growing Hydroponic Tomatoes
The United States alone consumes some 5 billion pounds annually. When demand is this high for fast moving consumer goods it's the consumer that is usually held hostage to pricing and forced to pay premium. Having a cheap, ready supply of tomatoes all year round makes a lot of sense.
If you find this prospect attractive as a newbie to hydroponic gardening, or an old hand wanting to shift attention to a new crop type, read on. We will try and address the three most pertinent factors in successfully raising hydroponic tomatoes.
Humidity
Tomatoes love water, they love lots of it. Now we all know what happens when you take on a heap of fluids, that's right, you have to dump a lot of it at some stage. Tomatoes are no different and transpire more water during photosynthesis than many other plants. This makes effective humidity control essential growing hydroponic tomatoes as they tend to suffer negative effects from elevated humidity levels.
These usually manifest themselves in reduced nutrient intake, particularly calcium, which can lead to long term plant defects. If you can measure the humidity then an ideal is 70% day and 80% night levels or a 0.5 Kpa VPD value.
Tomatoes grow in long day conditions and need extended periods of lighting to grow and yield well. Theoretically tomatoes need approximately 18 hours exposure to a 1000 foot-candle light source each to thrive. Tomatoes use mostly blue spectrum light and for this reason metal halide HID lamps are ideal where natural sunlight is not available.
Shading tomatoes with partial cover shade cloths in natural sunlight has proven to improve yields by up to 30 % so keep this in mind if your garden uses natural light.
Temperature
There aren't too many surprises with temperature when growing hydroponic tomatoes. They need a standard 22 - 26ºC (70 - 80ºF) day temperature range with a 5ºC drop at night. Don't exceed these temperatures though. A 10ºC departure can lead to stunting, nutritional deficiencies or death.
Hydroponic tomatoes can be tricky to grow, but are generally rewarding and a great addition to hydroponic gardening.
Published by Evan Tooley
Evan Tooley is a lifestyle photographer, writer, and a digital nomad. He once heard that all you need is love. In addition to that, he also needs a cold glass of fresh coconut water and a trip to Gulf Sho... View profile
- Best Hydroponic Gardening SuppliesHydroponic gardening supplies are difficult to find at most retail shops, but a search of the Internet yields a great number of readily available sites for these supplies.
- What is Hydroponic Gardening?Hydroponics consists of growing plants without the use of soil. Hydroponic crop production can be used to produce crop yields vastly larger than traditional agricultural methods.
A Garden Guide to Growing TomatoesA straight forward multi-section garden guide to growing tomatoes, including information on selecting, planting, pruning, caring for and harvesting the plants. This article was...- Getting More Produce from Your Hydroponic GardenHydroponic gardening is a great way to garden indoors if you do not have arable land suitable for gardening. If you are going to be gardening indoors, you will want to garden efficiently, in order to get more produce...
- How to Build a Deep Water Culture Hydroponic SystemMany people think about growing their own organic fruit, but few ever do. Now is the time with your own home made hydroponic system.
- Hydroponic Tomatoes Are Easy to Grow
- Hydroponic Gardening
- Learning the Basics of Organic Hydroponic Gardening
- Lighting Options for Hydroponic Gardening
- Where to Buy Hydroponic Gardening Supplies
- Some of the Basics of Hydroponic Gardening
- Hydroponic Gardening: What You Need to Know