Fuck the negativity! I hate hate.
Keep us posted on how this goes. I for one am very interested. I'd love to someday have my own hydroponic garden for all my vegetables... especially curious what kind of yields you can get, that is, what the cost per pound of tomatoes ends up being, including power and nutes...
The tomato season in Michigan, where I am, is unfortunately short. I only get to enjoy fresh ripe homegrown tomatoes from July till September, three months tops. I'd love to have them growing in the kitchen year round so I never have to go without.
Do you have a big tomato mom somewhere? Interesting approach with the clones, I've never heard of anyone doing that with tomatoes. It makes sense though. Gardening outdoors I often see one plant vastly outproduce another.
What kind of tomatoes are you growing? If you haven't tried heirlooms, you need to. The storebought kind are hybrids that are bred for thick skins, durability, not flavor. The heirlooms are basically wild tomato strains from before these breeding programs. They don't last long on the shelf, and they don't truck well because they're so easy to split, but the flavor... let's just say I can't even eat hybrids anymore, the taste is sickening by comparison. Brandywines (bright red/pink tomato, with a bright, acidic flavor) and cherokee purples are my favorites (this one is rich, sweet, almost smoky, very very dark, literally purple). You can get a crazy amount of cherry tomatoes perpetually from "sun golds" too.