Transplant Seedlings to a Hydroponic System

by Sam
(Philadelphia, Pa, U.S.)

Hydroponics sounds like an excellent way to grow tomatoes. I am only confused about one step. After I have grown from seed my plant and it is ready to be transplanted to my system, do I remove all of the soil and just place the roots into the pot with the pellets? It seems like the pellets would just smash the delicate roots (even though the pellets are light weight). What do you think?

Answer: Sam- plants with delicate roots should not have any grow medium removed from around the roots. I believe young tomato plants would fall into this category. Ideally, seeds would be started in Rapid Rooter plugs. Soon after sprouting, the entire Rapid Rooter plug can than be transplanted (tomato seedling and all) either directly into a system, or transplanted into a netted pot and supported with expanded clay pellets (with the net pot than being plugged into the hydroponic system). If the transplants are done before too many delicate roots begin to poke out the Rapid Rooter plug, the whole process can be done without any root damage.

Bigger tomato plants, filling out 4 or 6 inch containers and potted in soil, should probably be left in the soil at that point. For best results, any tomato plants you would like to grow in a hydroponic system should either be started without soil or else should be acquired while still small enough to be able to transplant the entire root ball into a netted pot without disturbing the roots too much. Hope this gives you a few ideas Sam, and Happy Growing!