Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Anyone who grows tomatoes, what is your gravel depth? I am trying to decide to either make grow beds filled with gravel or to make a flat bed with just the tomato plants inside pots filled with gravel. I just need to know the recommended depth and spacing for the plants.

Thanks again

One more question.....
Is one type of system better for tomatoes than another? Continuous flow or the flood and drain type? I didnt see a way to edit the other post so I just made a reply, sorry for extra cludder.

Thanks again

Most people have found that 300mm (6") growbeds with flood and drain suitas almost everything you might like to grow Newbie....

Consensus seems to suggest that ultimately flood and drain out-performs DWC in AP systems...

AP systems seem to also out-perform other methods with regard to spacing of plants... with many people just not even bothering too much with plant spacings...

When dealing with aqua spacing doesent realy matter as the supply of nuetrient is taken to the roots In this bed 1 meter =600mm 300 deep theres 2 tomatoes 200 apart some cellery and carrots in the same bed

I think 300 mm or 30 cm is closer to 12 inches deep. I have lots of tomatoes growing in my 12" deep flood and drain gravel beds. Tomatoes would be happy in even deeper beds, I doubt I would want shallower beds for growing lots of tomatoes. In my system the pump runs constantly and the flood and drain is produced by using auto siphons to drain the beds quickly once they reach the desired flood level. The tomatoes seem to be doing great with this though I have noticed some root blocking of the water flow which could be a problem in very small or trough type beds. I agree that flood and drain is a good choice. Tomatoes might do fine in a continuous trickle gravel bed but it doesn't provide as much bio-filter as flood and drain. I would not favor DWC or continuously flooded gravel for tomatoes.

I have tomatoes growing as close as 12" apart with other plants around them. Spacing in AP is more related in allowing the plant enough room to grow and have air flow. If you tend to prune heavily, you can plant close together. If you need more air flow for your chosen plants/environment then plant further apart or thin more later.

Doh... you're absolutely right...

Well I messed up. I was waiting on replies to my post, I forgot about being on the other side of the globe and the time difference lol. I made a bed that’s only 9" deep. I was thinking about putting the plants in pots and have the pots full of gravel. Would that work, or do you recommend just filling the bed with gravel and going with a different plant in those beds. I plan on doing collards, tomatoes and lettuce. I was shooting for the lettuce to be in some sort of pvc setup. The bed I made is 4 ft. by 8 ft. with 8” high sides and it will be inside my greenhouse this winter.
So a recap...
1. I messed up!
2. Will the bed work if the tomatoes are in pots of medium or should I fill the bed with medium and plant in that? The top of the pots would be higher but water level will only reach about 8".
3. Will only 8" be enough for tomatoes?

I'd fill the entire bed with medium. That way the plant can take up the room it needs. In my limited experience, the roots actually come out pretty easily when it's time to clean up. For medium, I used pea gravel and that seems to work fine.

Just go with it Newbie... sorry if my insomniac maths threw you off....

As long as you support the plants well, they can grow in 60mm of media. As below :



These were cherry tomatoes and grew full heads of tomatoes.

Wow...60mm...thats say 2"-2.5" If it works well enough I may try some 4" pvc for the tomatoe plants. I do hope to eventually grow 100-200 tomatoe plants....."hope" lol

I dont recomend that sort of depth though