I’m growing cucumbers, melons, padron peppers, tomatoes and watermelons this year.
I decided to use soil-less media (perlite) with an automatic watering system. The pots are 25 liters, the overflow pipes are 15 mm pex and the return pipe is 50 cm plastic pipe.
I lined the pots with a generous amount of gardening fleece to contain the perlite and also to make it easier to remove at the end of the season.
The silver container is a 100 liter plastic storage box which is painted black to keep out the sunlight to stop the water going green. The silver layer is insulating sheet to keep the water warm at night and cool during the day, it also reduces the light.
The water tank has a submersible garden pool pump that pumps water though the blue hose. Water lines come off the blue hose for each pot and the water is delivered to each pot with drip lines.
The tank also has an air pump to aerate the water and an aquarium heater to keep the water at 20 degrees C on cool nights.