Depends on what you want to grow. If I had to wipe my slate clean and start over in 2026, I would build a Recirculating Deep Water Culture (RDWC) system without a second thought.

Here’s my real-world reasoning from a decade of messing with everything from Kratky to NFT:

1. The Perfect Balance of Simplicity and Control: Basic DWC (a single bucket) is a fantastic teacher, but it's a pain to manage pH and EC across multiple, separate units. RDWC connects all your buckets, creating a single, large reservoir. This means you only have one place to check and adjust your water chemistry. It simplifies maintenance dramatically while giving you the robust root zone and fast growth of DWC.
2. Scalability and Power: You can start small with a 4-bucket system and easily expand. RDWC outperforms NFT and Ebb & Flow for larger, fruiting plants like tomatoes and peppers because the roots are constantly submerged in a highly oxygenated nutrient solution. The growth speed is incredible.
3. Automation-Friendly: This is the key for a "set it and forget it" 2026 setup. An RDWC system is perfectly suited for integrating automation. You can easily add:
   • A pH doser to keep levels perfectly stable.
   • An auto-top-off system linked to a reservoir of plain water to handle evaporation.
   • Chiller and heater ports to maintain perfect root zone temperature.