hey greendude! nice choice on the light. i have roughly the same setup and purchased an 8 bulb t5 which will either do the job or will leave me searching for a good deal on a HPS system.

I've been told numerous times to do a 15 minute flood 3-4 times a day. I'm going to do a 3 flood cycle w/ 1/3 nutes for the first week-10 days and then bump the nutes up to 1/2 and then full. I'm doing all hot peppers w/ a few smaller herbs packed into the 2x4 flood tray.

What type of pots are you using? I'm thinking about either 10" net pots or 10" standard pots w/ mesh bottom setup on a "drip" system.

I'd love to see a picture of your setup. I'll do the same when I'm setup and running.

Good luck!

If your medium retains water (ie: contains perlite, sawdust, etc.), then flooding 3 to 4 times a day for ±15 minutes is enough.
But your plants will tell you soon enough, and tomatoes can get very thirsty.

Hey, thanks for the responses!

@Pepper Man: Yeah, the HPS light just made sense to me, since I'm growing the flowering plants, but we'll see how that actually works for me during the initial plant growth stage. Also, I'd love to show you a picture of my setup, except I probably should have said "I have acquired a kit (that's still in the mail)." I'll likely post my pictures in a thread once I have everything set up. Also, I am just using rockwool cubes for the medium for now since they come with the kit, but I am seriously considering using pots full of the clay pellets for my next batch. This will, of course, have to change my strategy for the flood cycle, but it is good to know what to do for this initial experiment with the wool. Thanks a lot for sharing your nutrient plan; this makes a lot of sense to me and I will give this a shot.

@greystoke: Thanks for posting, and you're probably right: my system/plants will let me know if my flood plan is or isn't working and I can make adjustments as I get more intune with my setup.

My suggestion would be to increase duration based on plant growth. Once flowering & Fruiting starts, then frequency also needed to be increased. However, a flush is needed if you are doing this.

The flooding cycle varies depending on the type and size of plant and the type of medium. Like greystoke said, the more water it retains the longer you want to run between flood cycles.

Also, some plants like drier conditions than others. As your plants get bigger they'll eat and drink more, which means they'll dry out the medium faster.

Basically you want the medium to just barely dry out right before the flood kicks on. Measuring by your plants this means they'll begin ever so slightly to droop, then it will flood and they'll perk right back up. If they start to really look wilty and sad, you need to step things up.

If you learn to read your plants you won't need to even think about it beyond that. You'll just see they need more water and adjust it accordingly.