Comments on: Upside Down Tomatoes

By: Ramon Estrella

Ramon Estrella — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:00:44 +0000

I live in a small space and a small garden to go with it. Growing in the air only makes sense. I make my own. It’s pretty easy.

Living large in a small space

By: admin

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:11:07 +0000

Daniel: Please, please, please don’t do this to your tomatoes. I posted more about upside down planters later in the season, and I implore all gardeners to stop using these sadistic contraptions. Yes, some people have decent results growing things in upside down planters… but why abuse plants when your intention is to have them grow strong and produce food for you? I wouldn’t encourage you to plant tomatoes in full shade, to keep their roots saturated, or to spray your plants with vinegar; it’s possible the plants would survive and produce fruit… but tomato plants aren’t designed to grow in shade or water, or to be sprayed regularly with acid. Neither are they designed to grow upside down.

As for what herbs to grow along with your tomatoes? That should depend on what you like to eat. I’m partial to this tomato salad, so I always plant basil. I also like salsa, so I grow cilantro. If you prefer Italian tomato sauces, consider growing oregano, thyme, and rosemary… but these are perennials as far north as hardiness zone 5, so if you plant them on top of your tortured, upside down tomatoes, you may want to transplant them when it’s time to abuse more tomatoes in the next season.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:47:10 +0000

Thanks for all the info. I will try upside down tomatoes this coming Spring. I haven’t considered using a bag yet. I was thinking of plastic bottles. I might have an old bag around that I can try. I want to plant herbs on top though. Which ones would you suggest?

By: Corbin

Corbin — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:56:11 +0000

What a great solution to the short root problem! I’m growing tomatoes and peppers inside and I just converted a young tomato seedling from upside down to sideways. The roots only occupied about 15% of the vertical height in my container. Now I hope they take full advantage of the space below. It should have all the advantages of an upside down plant with plenty of room for the roots. I have placed a gently curved piece of plastic at the side hole to distribute the pressure on the stem.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:16:49 +0000

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Margaret

http://howtomakecompost.info

By: admin

admin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:41:55 +0000

Tracy: Your results make me concerned for the quality of the soil in your garden bed. If you filled your upside down planters with potting soil, they have pretty good nutrition, so even stressed by the anti-gravity orientation, the plants may do well.

However, if the same type of plant in a garden bed doesn’t at least match the performance of an upside down plant, the soil in the garden may be depleted (barring differences in lighting and watering). Reports from readers and acquaintances are running about 3 to 1 against upside down planters; a neighbor of mine recently had a tomato plant break off at the hole of his planter, and his other upside down tomato plant looks very sickly. My upside down tomatoes both are woefully underperforming compared to my garden tomatoes and my upside up container tomatoes.

By: tracy

tracy — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:32:07 +0000

It works. We decide to experiment with the Topsy Turvy. We have 3 growing tomatoes. 1 growing an eggplant and 1 growing a cucumber. They didn’t start producing any faster than the ones we have growing the normal way in the garden, but the yield has been grewater for all of them. I would say we have already harvested 20-30 lbs of tomatoes. And 10x as many eggplants as we have gotten from the garden grown eggplants. The cucumbers, not much different from our experiment of growing then up a panelled fence.

By: Upside Down Tomatoes: Why, Oh Why? | Your Small Kitchen Garden

Upside Down Tomatoes: Why, Oh Why? | Your Small Kitchen Garden — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:27:44 +0000

[...] Upside Down Tomatoes: Why, Oh Why? Posted by admin | Under home kitchen garden, plant tomatoes, plant vegetables, small kitchen garden Saturday Jul 11, 2009 [...]

By: admin

admin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:58:44 +0000

I agree that upside down planters are “faddish.” They’d be very impractical for growning large numbers of plants… but I think they’re worth experimentation for a space-challenged kitchen garden. Still, if you have room to grow the plant upside down, you could probably grow it upside right, and the plant would be happier.

An upcoming blog post explores small-space tomato planters in-depth. I have a few plants going this year that I think will appeal to balcony- and deck-gardeners, and that don’t put plants in a crazy anti-gravity orientation.

By: TC

TC — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:29:21 +0000

I think the upside down planters are a fad and for anyone who does a lot of canning with tomatoes, upside down planters are impractical.