Container hydroponics SystemsContainer hydroponics systems are small vessels holding a growing medium and one or more plants, such as a tomato plant in a bucket filled with pebble stone or a small plant in a flower pot placed in some kind of growth medium (more on growing mediums later). This pot is periodically flooded with aerated nutrient solution and drained. This flooding can be manual or part of a more elaborate set up involving a pump and timer - although this would probably be classified as an 'ebb and flow' system. Therefore the container must have a means to drain the nutrient solution when needed such as a spigot or simply a hole in the bottom of the vessel. These types of container hydroponics systems are generally the simplest of all the types of growing systems.
One simple method could be a tomato plant in a bucket filled with pea stone. The bucket would have a spigot near the bottom that can be turned off and on. This bucket could be placed on a support 2 feet off the ground and have a hose attached to the spigot going into a second bucket containing nutrient solution (this bucket is on the ground). Twice a day, you could dump the nutrient solution from bucket #2 into bucket #1, with it's spigot turned off, until the nutrient solution level reaches the top of the pea stone. Wait a half hour or so and open the spigot to drain the solution back into bucket #2. This is a nice-and-easy manual system guaranteed to be successful. Now, does this system satisfy the 5 basic plant requirements? Yes! Mineral salts are the nutrient which are dissolved into the water. The plant is outside receiving a good light source (and good temperature, hopefully) and the action of dumping the solution into the plant bucket produces oxygen that is carried to the roots. Perfect!
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