Hydroponic tomato production: Growing media requirements

Tomato growers of different regions use different growing medium such as peat-lite mix, premix, perlite or rockwool slabs. The objective of this study was to identify a suitable growing medium for single cluster tomato in ebb and flood hydroponic production. In the preliminary study: 1) rock wool mat, 2) poly fiber air filter, 3) coffee filter scrap, 4) black paper mulch, 5) rayon: polyester 70:30 (RPM 1), and 6) rayon: polyester 50:50 (RPM 2) were used. Although there were no differences in fruit yield among treatments, RPM1 performed better than other treatments except black paper mulch. RPM1 was preferred over black paper mulch due to a) better moisture holding capacity, b) good root growth, and c) ease of handling. In the subsequent 2 experiments, treatments were with and without RPM1 with increased frequency of irrigation. Here again, there were no differences in fruit yield between treatments. It was concluded that single cluster tomato plants growing in rockwool blocks do not need additional growing media during certain times of the year.