Topsy Turvy™ Upside-down Tomato Planter

  • Thread starter Ivan Seeking
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In summary: The plants tend to get tangled up and congested, with water running down the stem and collecting right where the stem emerges from the planter. The stem ends up rotting from the pooling water, where in a normal planter it would go away from the plant and also feed the roots. In the end, the plants end up convoluted and congested as they try to turn upward toward the sun. Essentially, the plants try to grow up into themselves and turn into a nasty knot of tangled growth. The planter itself also shields the plant from the sun, particularly when the plant is young.
  • #36
WOW. How did you DO that? Our tomato plant just rotted away in the topsy-turvy! I am very interested in more details. How big were the plants when you planted them and are they still doing this splendidly?! More details; please!
 
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  • #37
We used a commercial potting soil, the plants were in 3" pots and about 4-6in tall when planted. We killed a plant when I shoved the roots through the hole. My wife tried again by threading the plant through the hole.

Why we aren't rotting off stems?? I don't know, we had some water dripping through initially, which seems to have stopped now. It has been cool and rainy since we planted them. For the most part we have let the rain water them, but now the weatherman tells me we have some sun ahead of us. Today was the first full sun since I don't know when. Now we need to figure out how much water they will need. Seems that too much water would lead to what you describe, I will keep a close eye on these and post more pics.

My wife bought a pack of 6 plants, I killed one stuffing it into the TT, the other 3 have been stuck into the ground, they are doing ok, but not nearly as well as the 2 in the TT.

It's too late to get any pics tonight, I will get some tomorrow. The last pics were taken on 5 Jun. I have pic from the day we planted, 5 May, but Photobucket doesn't want me on tonight, so will try again tomorrow.
 
  • #38
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Both started as 2 inch seedlings, we'll be getting our second harvest. Standard potting soil.
 
  • #39
Either of you gotten any tomatoes? If so, how many? I've already gotten a few pounds off of a tomato planted in a pot on my patio and my neighbor has gotten zero off of their TT plant. My plant is at least 5 times the size of hers.
 
  • #40
I HAD eleven plants. I got maybe a bushel of fruit before they died from some sort of fungus. Actually, I'm having a bacon and tomato sandwich right now. hmmmm.
 
  • #41
dlgoff said:
I HAD eleven plants. I got maybe a bushel of fruit before they died from some sort of fungus. Actually, I'm having a bacon and tomato sandwich right now. hmmmm.
Sorry to hear that dl.
 
  • #42
I've gotten nearly 10 pounds off of the Early girls and I'm thinking we're going to at least triple that going out, still waiting on the Champions (we planted quite late).
 
  • #43
jekostas said:
I've gotten nearly 10 pounds off of the Early girls and I'm thinking we're going to at least triple that going out, still waiting on the Champions (we planted quite late).
How many plants do you have? A plant as small as the ones you posted couldn't produce much. ? I've been picking the cherry tomatoes for about a month (greenhouse plants) and they're about 6' tall! The larger tomatoes are just starting to ripen. I've only been doing container planting for 3 years since I moved out of my house, but the yield is definitely limited by the container size.
 
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  • #44
Evo said:
How many plants do you have? A plant as small as the ones you posted couldn't produce much. ? I've been picking the cherry tomatoes for about a month (greenhouse plants) but the larger tomatoes are just starting to ripen.

We have four plants - two Early Girls and two Champions. One of each at our apartment, and one of each at my parents' house (where the rest of our garden resides). We didn't have any more room on our balcony.

The Early girls have been quite prolific so far, but the fruit has been somewhat undersized.

As to the size, well, they aren't small. We've been constantly pruning back non-fruit bearing branches over the last month or so as to not overload the main stems (we don't have supports for them).
 
  • #45
jekostas said:
We have four plants - two Early Girls and two Champions. One of each at our apartment, and one of each at my parents' house (where the rest of our garden resides). We didn't have any more room on our balcony.

The Early girls have been quite prolific so far, but the fruit has been somewhat undersized.

As to the size, well, they aren't small. We've been constantly pruning back non-fruit bearing branches over the last month or so as to not overload the main stems (we don't have supports for them).
I'm finding that my tomatoes are undersized also, i read that they shouldn't be planted an anything less than a 5 gallon container, which is pretty big.

These is one of the cherry tomato plants a week ago, after being picked, they're tasty, but small and the skins are tough.

017ln.jpg


You should join our gardening thread https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=74652&page=151

I am the lone container gardener there, I could use some moral support.
 

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