[wbmkk]

I have grown tomatoes in my greenhouse on / off for over 30 years and always used the ring culture method.

No gravel aggregate was used, just the original greenhouse soil mixed with compost. Every year, I would tip the old pot compost back on to the soil.

I suppose I have been lucky that they have grown at all for so many years

last year though, after a great start the plants ended up not doing very well, I think they had verticillium wilt. By the middle of August they werre a sorry sight, so I threw them all away

I'll be planting this year's plants out in the next few days and was thinking of putting them in large buckets, with a few holes drilled in the bottoms, and resting these in grow bag trays.

Are these trays waterproof, or do they have holes in them. I've looked online and it's a bit difficult to see.

Does anybody here use this same approach for tomoatoes ?

[snowdrops]

Yes they do hold water & yes I’ve done that approach before, but I found I needed to be careful not to over water them & leave standing water in the trays as I botrytis a few years on the plants from there being too much water. I also originally stood bottomless pots on gravel in them or sometimes I put the bottomless pot into a growbag on the tray, that worked well as I’d doubled the compost for the roots to grow into ( but also the cost)

[wbmkk]

I’ve done that approach before, but I found I needed to be careful not to over water them & leave standing water in the trays

I grew some extra tomatoes a few times in our sun lounge and used old towels to link pots to a trough of water, so water could rise up as required into the pots.

Maybe I could stand pots on bricks and link the compost with some twisted towel, to let water rise only when required ... capillary action rings a feint bell in my head here 

[Growster...]

We always grow most of out toms in 10" buckets full of soil/old compost, topped off new Jack's Magic - two to a pot, and just stand the pots in a tray; it takes four pots.

Some are in the GH, and the others on different spots around the garden, to get differing growing conditions, and hopefully to avoid the dreaded blight. The trays hold quite a lot of water, so I pop in a gallon per tray at the bottom when I water them every day or so and over the years they've been fine.

As Snows says, they need ventilation. so open 'em windows when you can!