Thanks chuckwagon. I am worried about water temps. I am thinking bout buying some of those cheap silver reflective tarps fro harbor freight to wrap multiple drums.

I was hopeing to do the 55 gal kratky drums so I could put the plant in and forget it till fruiting. I considered DWC with bublers, but then I would have to keep up with the nutrient level. Lazy....yes! I can accept the reduced lbs of fruit if thats the result. I just don't have the time to monitor levels and ppm daily. Last year I had a 40 station dutch bucket that was going thru 15 - 20 gal a day. I put in a 100 gal buried reservoir, but still had to do a changeout every 3 - 4 days.

What vegetables did you try in the 55 gal setups?

I did toms, eggplant. Cucs, cabbage, and zucchini. Cabbage was successful but the others i was not impressed with. If your reservoir is 55 gal per plant a few bubblers per tub wouldnt complicate things and would be good for monthly reservoir changes and not need daily maitnence and unlike kratky can be refilled to original level or exchanged with a bloom formula.

Space blankets are a good idea but cannot change ambient temps. It might take a little extra work but burying the res even a foot is a better option. A rental motor auger/post hole digger are quite affordable for a day and make quick work out of the holes for a 55 drum. I took the soil i dug out and filled a raised bed for corn. It was almost a 15 degree temp difference in the tubs i buried 2 ft deep vs the ones at ground lvl. I buried 12 tubs in a few hrs with the auger.

Wow, 15 deg is impressive. Right now I just can't commit to ripping up my greenhouse floor until I am sure this is the "road" I am going to take for the next several years. I do have a 20" auger on the tractor, but if I decide to bury 45, I would rent a skidloader.

Can you elaborate why you weren't impressed? Did you have 1 plant per barrel? I saw another post somewhere on the web where someone had 50+ lbs cucs off of 1 55 gal setup.

I wasn't impressed because the output. I had one Tom, 2 eggplant , 2 cuc , 4 cabbage, 1 zucchini. Each crop had its downside using a one and done nutrient. Growth was slow starting, plants later got huge but didnt produce because the lack of phosphorus. I started the containers with a 15-11-30 nutrient solution at 700ppm and it was too much for smaller plants, worked great at 3-6 weeks then i noticed growth kinda stall.

I guess i am used to growth at every stage to be fast and hearty. I do devote time to my garden so i expect higher yields from it. If you are content with mediocre results with little time invested than kratky method would be the route. But if you can afford a few mins a day DWC can yield much more.

Thanks Chuckwagon for your input. I really appreciate it. I invite you to look at my only video of my greenhouse. at 5:50 into the video, you can see 3 of my Kratky drums last year. I think I posted the url somewhere at the top of my page here. If not, here it is, I hope.

greenhouse

That is a great looking greenhouse and some beautiful plants in there. For soon much work to go into such a great looking greenhouse and settle for kratky is puzzling but up to you. Once you get your methods down and know what your plants use it is super easy to manage a rdwc or just dwc. When i do my 5 gal dwc buckets i know that in full bloom i mix up a certain ppm solution in a big res and top off daily. Takes maybe 15 mins to check and refill 50 buckets. In veg i can go 3 days or more without need to refill.

I noticed that you were growing many different types of veggies in one system. Lots of veggies prefer different EC levels and PH levels, while everything looked very healthy on your video its hard to maximize yield that way.

On any note, very good looking build on the greenhouse and all your systems looked very clean and efficient.