Are your tomato plants getting sun?
"Did I make a mistake of not growing them from seed in the DWC"
No :)
I try to keep my PH level around 5.5 and are you using the correct amount of grow nutrients and are you aerating your water.

The tomato on the left was started in soil and the other was started in a grow plug in DWC. Both were started at the same time and are the same variety. The one in soil I used Espoma Starter Plus with.

This is my first system , so I don't know a lot. I've learned a lot here and on Youtube.

I have really good aeration and circulate the water during the day. I understand high water temp. is a no-no.

Also when I transplanted to DWC outside I left the roots partly out of the water.

Your PH and nutes sound OK. If you can post a picture , maybe you'll have better answers.

Sorry for the late response, I realized I had organic nutrients that were meant for soil. I'm running chem nutes now (GH) and everything is correct. But the plants are still kind of droopy, and have yellow spots appearing in them now...Here are some pics, please post you thoughts.

I had a drooping problem recently and cured it with some shade cloth. We had about a week of rain and cloudy weather and the plants made lots of new growth that had not hardened off. As soon as the sun , high temps (90) and wind hit them they drooped during the day. The shade cloth helped them recover and now they are fine.

The yellow spots may be magnesium deficiency ....... did you add espsom salts to your nutes ? I spray my peppers and tomatoes with a weak solution of epsom salts every 2 weeks. It helps with the yellow spots.

Are you running an air pump ?

I'm still new at this, someone else may have more help for you.

Thanks for the response, yea shade cloth sounds like a good idea but we don't t have too much sun, its more rain then anything.
I do have 4 air stones so I know oxygenation isn't the the issue. PH is correct and nutes are @ 500ppm.
I guess I will just wait it out and see...

Double post.

This post was edited by PonicManne on Mon, Jul 8, 13 at 10:07

I also grow tomatoes in bio buckets.recirculating DWC. When I first put the babies in their netpots in the springtime I always water them by hand with the nutrient solution till the roots get down to the water then they can take off by themselves. Would also recommend lava rock for medium in net pots as it will provide a beneficial bacteria culture that will keep the plants happy and harmful bacteria at bay. Good luck

from the pictures they don't look to bad. Are they droopy all day long or just at the same time each day?
500 ppm is kind of low for tomatoes.

I will try the lava rock option for my next future grow.

I also water the plants from top with the nutrient solution to speed up the root growth. I transplanted these babies from soil and they already developed quite a lot of root mass so I slipped what I could through the netpot and the rest are laying down on the bottom surrounded by hydroton. My water lvl is about an inch from the bottom of the netpot, so I'm wondering if the droopiness is from too much water contact...Well from my understanding they are still pretty young so 500ppm seemed like the right choice but I can up it to see if they perk up...

They kind of go from a little droopy in the sunlight then perk up a bit during the evening hours but its been 5 days and I don't
see any progress really...I'm wondering now if I had a nute lock out, and might have to flush out the system for a couple hours with pH water only then slowly introduce nutes.

Any suggestions would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks.

Well Im currently doing a full 24h flush with pHd water to clear out nutes incase I may have gotten nute burn. I will then start off @ 500ppm. Honestly Im about to give up on this grow all together, I cannot figure out why it just wont progress any further since I transported from soil.

They can take take a while to get acclimated, it's a big change.I always start at 350 ppm GH Maxigro and seldom over around 650 ppm max in rapid growth. That is measuring with a cheap Hanna Primo that calibrates at 1383. Most run their solution stronger than that.Optimum nutrient strength varies from system to system. Sounds like you are doing everything right,dont give up, often patience is a gardeners greatest skill. Good luck!

If the plants were near their current size when you transplanted them, they're probably still adjusting to their climate as happy said. when you dig up a plant you both disturb the root remaining and you sever a lot too (usually unintentionally) It's only been a few days. give it more time. lift up your lid and look at the roots. If there is new white roots coming out that is your plant trying to recover. It has to replace the lost and damaged roots before it will starting growing up top too much.
As for DWC, you don't need to flush your system for 24 hours. simply dump out your suspect nutrient and put fresh in its place. Flushing is more relevant to ebb n flo systems and drip systems. Also when looking at your roots just look at the bottom of your rez. If there are not appreciable solids laying on the bottom, nutrient lockout is not likely the problem.

Thanks for the responses, I Went ahead and made a 500ppm solution so we will see how they recover. I know it takes time, but its been almost 6 days and they just don't seem to be moving so it had me little concerned. But they will pull through, we are talking about tomato plants after all.

I have the water sitting about half an inch under the net pot with the roots hanging in the solution so hopefully they don't mind the change.

Appreciate the help.