I grew hydroponic tomatoes last year in DW and had very good success. To be honest with you tomatoes are easy to grow in DW, but there are some things that are extremely important to success. Space: Tomato plants use tons of space. I grew the Money Maker (4" red globe), Heirloom Organic Beefsteak, and Cherry Tomatoes. Each plant took up a 3 x 3 foot square on the floor and grew all the way to my 8' ceilings. Light: I found using both MH and HPS lights at the same time work well with tomatoes. The HPS light seems to spread, and penetrate the plants better, while the MH light keeps things nice a green. I had two 1KW lights going on at the same time. Ventilation: One of the keys is good air flow. If you see the plants leaves and flowers moving then you have enough air. The temp got up to 85 deg F every day in my grow room, and sometimes in the summer, I had to open up the windows. Bugs: Opening up a window, or bringing in plants from other gardens opens up your grow room to bugs, which can be very difficult to get rid of. Nutrients: I used the General Hydro Flora Nova Grow and Bloom nutrients with no Micro Nutrients except for a Calcium and Magnesium supplement. I started them out at 1.0 EC (by starting I mean they were 6" tall second set of leaves were out), and finished up with a strong 3.5 EC. I started with Grow until the plant was about 3' tall and started to bloom, then after blooming set in full I switched to the Bloom nutrients. DW: The most critical thing about tomatoes in DW is aeration of the water. I would strongly suggest you start your plants out in 2 gallon buckets, and then move them to 5 gallon buckets once they get about 3' tall. It is much harder to aerate the 5 gallons then the 2 gallons. You can tell when the plants roots are not getting enough air by the roots being brown, they should be white. I would also strongly recommend getting the General Hydro dual diaphragm 4-valve air pump, and using one 4" air stone to each pump when in the 5 gallon buckets, and two 4" air stones in 2 - 2 gallon buckets. You cannot give the plants too much air around the roots! Media: I started my plants out in rock wool, and finished them in rock wool. The secret to tomatoes is getting air to the roots during the entire growing stage. If you do not get enough air to the roots when they are young, they will never make it to adult plants. The problem with rock wool blocks and DW is that the air just goes around the block while it sits in the solution. You need to get air directly to the roots. To do this, I drill a hole through the center of the block, then use a plug (half the depth of the hole to hold the plant, while the roots hang below directly in the solution). Make sure your air stone is directly below the center of your basket and that your net pot or basket does not prevent air from entering the hole you drilled in the center of the rock wool block. In case the link part does not work: http://picasaweb.google.com/MEHargraves/Hydroponics# I hope this helps! Here is a link that might be useful: My home garden last year.

You can grow an amazing hydroton plant. Did you see all the hydroton seeds he includes? Seriously though, this is a bucket, air line, air stone, air stone... I mean it's just about the simplest hydroponic system you can build. If you don't want to DIY it's not a bad price, though. I can't understand not building it yourself but I'm a MacGyver type anyway.

I'm a newbie, but I'm thinking that it depends on how big of system you have. Because as I understand it, tomatoes and peppers are demanding and I would think it depends on how big the system is. I did see a guy that had 6 tomato plants in one container, a home made DWC/aeration system made in a large storage tub. Plus you should keep in mind that beans vine out...where are they going to go? will they block light for the other plants? Just thinking out loud hoping I might help...

Thanks everyone. Broke down this weekend and converted the system to recirculating dwc. I think we went overboard with the reservoir bucket, 27 gallon container found at the home despot for $9. We made our own "bulkhead" connectors using pvc and garden gaskets, and attached dripsystem hoses. With the pond pump and parts, it was about $100 total. Drain from each bucket by gravity. Easy to reach equilibrium. We put all six bubblers into the reservoir instead of individual buckets, not sure why... probably should've left them in the buckets. Reservoir is not ideal plastic and likely full of bad contaminants, but this is all just a test anyway. We harvested soil-grown tomatoes already which were started a couple weeks AFTER we started the hydro grown ones, these are just going soooo slow, very anxious and frustrated, better be good :) Biggest mistake was putting the reservoir on the ground with no drain *face palm*. I will likely install a y-valve at the pump so we can easily pump out "most" of the water. We tried to setup the trellis on the table, however, it kept falling over, so for now, the trellis remains as is and we'll have to deal with arching tomato plants.