/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>207927
What he said.

I do maintain a hydroponic setup (2m²), but only use it for leafy vegetables (lettuce, spinach, ..). When it comes to 'fruity' vegetables (tomatoes, peppers,..) I prefer soil. They do fine in hydroponic setups and often produce more (in weight, not numbers; bigger tomatoes, not more tomatoes), but in my experience this gain in quantity comes at the expense of quality. You get the same watery hydroponic tomatoes you buy at the store, and for me that defeats the purpose of growing them yourself. I gave up on hydroponic tomatoes after 4 years of trying; quantity was great but never got the flavor right.

Also, I prefer hydroponics (NFT, DWC,ebb and flow) above aeroponics. Sure, it looks fancy and when working 100% it outperforms hydroponics in my experience, but it sacrifices practicality to do so. It is harder to maintain, nozzles are prone to clogging after a few grow-cycles (tried 3 kinds), pythium and blight take hold easier, in case of system failure or power-outage your plants are dead in a few hours (instead of 1 or 2 days with hydroponics), bigger fluctuations in ph due to CO2 dissolving more easily into the water (H2CO3-complexes), ..

Pic kinda related; my tomato-seedlings two days ago; almost ready to be planted outside.