I recently read an ad for containers used to plant tomatoes. Thing is you plant them upside down. The pots are inverted and you hang them.. They say it eliminates the need for staking the plant up and they get more sun. Has anyone ever planted tomatoes upside down? If so did it actually work? I sounds like an interesting concept. I'd like to try it but I am a bit hesitant to try it with many plants in case it doesn't work.
I saw those planting bags for sale in some seed catalogs this winter, so I started extra tomato seeds. Am going to try to hang some big, black plastic (nursery) pots and plant the 'maters to come through the big, center drain hole in the pots.
The fun part about gardening is experimenting with new ideas and plants every year : )
Jan USDA Zone 3, Alaska
Christ Almighty, Flora, why don't you go back to you-know-where and leave these fine people alone? You know as much about tomatoes as Dennis Harris knows about cruises.
Ah, a stalker.
Crawl back under your rock, troll.
Other than creating a novelty item, why would anyone want to do this? If I understand this concept correctly, that the plant grows upside down, gravity may indeed keep the main stalk growing straight down (whether that's true or not I don't know because I thought a stalk will tend to want to grow up and thus loop around), and assuming that is true, how can one assume that the branches of a tomato plant won't break or succumb to gravity because it's upside down instead of right side up? I would assume either way you would want to provide support for the lateral branches.
I also doubt this is easier than right side up growing. Assuming it is true that you do save on staking the plant, you still have to build a structure that holds very heavy bags of dirt 6 or 8 feet high, tomato plants can grow that big. I would think that building a structure like that would be a lot more complicated than just staking the stalk and in either case you might end up building a cage anyway to support the branches.
This is interesting. I was under the assumption that 5 gallon buckets were too small of a container to grow tomatoes yet they seem pretty robust in your picture. Does growing upside down allow for the use of smaller containers or does your plant still not produce as much fruit had it been placed in a much larger container?
De reet van je moeder heeft haar eigen vakbond.
I looked at your website and saw flowers, advertising, and pop-up ads, but no tomatoes.
Dick
shows the opposite of the advertisements. The ads for these things typically shows the tomato plant hanging downward, not turning up and growin up the outside of the upside down container. Your method looks even more prone to disaster than growing the regular way that nature does it. Chances are the plant that is sold is a variety that is bred more for hanging baskets, so it will droop down easily. If your plants even get too many fruit on them the weight will pull them down and put a lot of stress on the upturned stems. You'll may need to tie the stems to the hanging chains/ropes of the pot for support or risk damaging the stems. Although in a greenhouse you don't ahve to have as hardy stems as you would outside.
DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY,
Just a gimmick really. How does putting the pot ABOVE the plant give it more sun? Doesn't the pot become a overhang/umbrella , therefore creating a shadow to now block more sun?
Many plants automatically grow and turn upward towards the sun. Most tomato species do this. A hanging baskt variety would be more limp, although they also tend to be more of the cherry-sized tomatoes. Even on hanging plants, the ends constantly upturn towards the sun. I'd bet that the variety in the upside down is a hanging basket version. But I really see no benefit whatsoever to upside down planting. Take the money you'd spend on this and buy a simple, effective and resusable cage and you won't have to worry about pinching out or staking and tying.
DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY,
Think the only real advantage is for those who don'tt have a lot of garden space for tomatoes..A lot of tomatoes can be grown in a very small area this way.
Don't know whether it's bad or good but a lot of the fun for me is trying new flowers & plants and new ways of growing them.
If what was good enough for grandpa is good enough for you then you probably shouldn't try it. LOL
Marv-Montezuma, IA
Or any garden space at all.
If they're in an apartment, and floorspace on the patio (or deck) is already at a premium, or the floor is shady, but something hanging could be in more sun, this is a possible solution.
If nothing else, it'll be a conversation piece if they entertain out there.
Gardening, even vegetable gardening, isn't always about maximizing yields, or increasing efficiency for the masses.
I'm not sure how that is true--I mean beyond using a hanging container. And a hanging container has it's own supprt system--the hook. If you us one with three chains, you have three supports to tie tomatoes to.
Nope, don't follow grandpa's superstitions and majic tonics. I prefer to understand why plants grow and what they need and work from there.
DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY,
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