I had to go out of state for a few weeks last year and had no one to water several of my indoor plants (soil not hydro). So I rigged up a thoroughly cleaned out 5 gallon gas can (plastic) to a gilmour sprinkler timer and set it on an upright freezer to gravity feed them. It looked like an improvised explosive device but it worked. The timer was one of those $15.00 ones you would use for an outdoor sprinkler hose. It only uses 2 AA batteries. I set it for 2 minutes every 3 days.I also had to use a valve to adjust the water flow down to a trickle. This is not a difficult system to devise. Just look through plumbing and gardening till you find what you need. My only concern would be the straw bale retaining a high concentration of nutrients.

Makes sense, Most organic mediums have a tendency to do that as they break down.I think coconut coir or peat/perlite are better choices for a drip system. I had a hard time with fungus gnats when I got back from my trip, I think because my indoor plants were not in a soilless medium & they got to wet. Straw & hay are better adapted to a compost pile.

gfol,
I see this in the hydroponics yet for me I have ran a similar system to this last year.We set up 120 straw bales as a garden, we did use some sprinkler in the beginning to get seeds to germinate.I guess I am not sure how to look at it as hydroponics, what we did was set up a standard gravity fed drip system to our straw bales.We then added compost teas and other organic fertilizers used for hydroponics into our water container.This did need to be stirred and also needed to have water added every several days for our garden So I guess reality is a couple of bales with tomatoes should be a piece of cake.
From this garden we did produce mixed veges that fed over a hundred people through out the growing season.Tomatoes especially the indeterminate grew very well and were highly productive.They grew to large for the trellis set up that we had.This year I have decided to also try some of the patio type tomatoes to see if they produce any differently.I prefer heirlooms however.
Keep in mind that I live in northwest Montana and that we are not humid here at all.We did not have any disease or mildew problems.We did however start all the plants out with a handful of compost in the straw when we planted.Our straw bale garden put most regular gardens in our area to shame.It also took very little work.However I do not consider it a hydroponics set up even if the straw is considered a soil-less medium.The straw does break down into a fantastic soil base perfect for mulching the next year.
Hope this gives you a bit more info.
Mary

Mary;
I Can't agree with you more. If It doesn't spit, spray, bubble, gurgle, squirt, blow spooky looking fog, etc. It just might still be considered hydroponic so long as it's made almost entirely out of plastic and doesn't use a medium that breaks down into DIRT!
Ken

Ken,
LOL,,I guess I was confused at seeing something like this in the hydroponics section.I have a son who builds hydroponics set ups.Your definitely on about the noises, I have not tried one of his unique set ups yet that did not have a pump(occasionally known to steal moms water feature pumps and some different grow mediums.I just grabbed him some hydroton the other day for his strawberry plants.He did not like the rock wool for them.
I hope gfol will check out something like straw bale gardening with a gravity fed drip system that is much easier to put together then looking at it as hydroponics.
Mary

Hello gardenbutt,

Do you have a picture of your straw bale garden? Interesting idea. Given the fact that straw bales at the Durango, Co. Co-op cost around $6 it wouldn't be cost effective if the life of a bale is only one season. (Growing up on a farm, straw bales cost a nickel if we baled them and a dime if we bought them already baled! That was in the 50's.) Wheat or oat straw? Did you have trouble with volunteer grain? What about nutrient cost since it wasn't recycled?

Given the wide fluctuations in summer weather in this area from 90 degrees and 5% humidity to monsoonal storms, regulating flow would be a challenge.

Mark

why not use a recovery system, catch the liquid and filter it check forPH and nutrents and reuse. no dout it will work in outside and green house. would work with many diffrent vegtables, there no end to it.

you all make me wanna try this plus I saw a video where this guy was using it in a drip system in aquaponics towers. He filled the tubes with it and then put his seedlings in after it had been being dripped on for 24 hours.