Cascading tomatoes- Make your own Topsy-Turvy
Here’s an innovative way to grow tomato plants. You need a hanging basket 10″ or larger. Make a hole in the middle at the bottom of the basket just large enough to insert a tomato plant . Once you have made this hole, insert your tomato plant thru the hole planting it upside down. The root ball is now inside the basket and the plant hangs out from the bottom. Fill your basket with potting soil and a time release fertilizer and hang it in a sunny spot. I’m going to hang mine on a shepherd’s hook in my flower bed, where there is lots of sun and perhaps another on my deck so that I can have easy access to tomatoes when I need them. I’m sure we can all get creative as to where to hang these baskets, just make sure that they have sturdy support. The plants can get heavy once they have tomatoes hanging on them. A smaller variety of tomato such as “Patio Princess” would work better than your large beefsteak varieties due to the weight of the tomatoes. You can also try this method with a 2 liter plastic soda bottle .
Dig out your empty hanging baskets from last year or recycle those 2 liter soda bottles and plant a tomato upside down. If you don’t have an empty hanging basket there are specially designed containers such as the Topsy Turvy now available on the internet .
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Kris, Thanks for all your sound gardening advice. I’ve recently seen ads for cascading tomato contraption, such as Topsy Turvey. Do you have any experience with these? Hi G. Up to date I have not tried the Topsy turvey. The novel concept…
Read G Shizzle discussionKapusta What fruits and vegetables can be planted in pots for city gardening? There are many vegetables and some fruits that can easily be grown in container. Vegetables such as peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, cucs, beans, lettuce, potatoes and fruits like strawberries, are…
Read Kapusta discussionI am considering growing a few tomato plants in an area that gets only partial sunlight. Would it be advisable to supplement light from a grow lamp, when natural light is not available? What about the use of mirrors to reflect sunlight…
Read Larry discussionI am trying the topsy-turvy, but so far, I am not impressed. I bought two identical tomato plants, and put one in a large container and the other in the tt bag. The container tomato plant is now twice the size! The…
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Kapusta
What fruits and vegetables can be planted in pots for city gardening?
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I am considering growing a few tomato plants in an area that gets only partial sunlight. Would it be advisable to supplement light from a grow lamp, when natural light is not available? What about the use of mirrors to reflect sunlight to shaded areas?
Kris,
Thanks for all your sound gardening advice. I’ve recently seen ads for cascading tomato contraption, such as Topsy Turvey. Do you have any experience with these?
I am trying the topsy-turvy, but so far, I am not impressed. I bought two identical tomato plants, and put one in a large container and the other in the tt bag. The container tomato plant is now twice the size! The topsy-turvy plant has curled upward toward the sun (they receive equal sun as they are next to each other) but apparently, the bag shades the plants leaves and seems to cause it to stay much smaller. It has one flower and the container plant has seven. Anyone else find this? Any suggestions?
I have a topsy-turvy planter. Green peppers in the top and a tomato growing out the bottom. The peppers are doing much better than the tomato. I have about 6 peppers of medium size. I’ve picked about 4 very small tomatoes and don’t expect to get much more. The plant seems to have stopped growing and is not flowering anymore. I have been feeding it time released food and cont’d watering, and lots of sun.
I tried the Topsy-Turvey this year with dismal results. I am usually a pretty good gardener overall, and the concept for this seems to be a good idea. However, no matter what I did (or didn’t do), it did not result in having any tomatoes at all except for a few runty puny ones.. My dad had great success with his. I did not. The plant was spindly and did not produce as well as I had hoped. It’s an expensive idea that has limited success. I will try it again next year and hope for the best. This year was over and done with early because of the poor results I experienced.
I tried the Topsy-Turvy this year. I planted a determinate called Banana Legs and there were tons of them. However, I thought they were tasteless and I ended up feeding them to the chickens. There were a couple of times the plant wilted, but it always recovered. I will try again next year, or maybe even this fall ( I have a couple of volunteers that are transplant size ) The good thing was that it was not touching the ground and therefore was away from predators. Something is eating the tomatoes I planted in the ground. I may also try cucumbers next year and rig up some kind of wire frame for them to climb on.
If you have nothing else to do but take care of the topsy turvy, it is great! If you don’t drip water it every day, twice a day, you get bottom end rot. My tomatoes were small and few but the pepper plant is thriving in it. After 2 attempts at it, I give up and will try container gardening with a resevoir so that I can go away for a weekend without getting a babysitter for my tomato plant!