The Great Topsy-Turvy Mystery Revisited

Ok boys and girls sit down and enjoy the show, we are about to find out if the Topsy-Turvy tomato thingy really does grow more and bigger tomatoes or not. Let’s get started! First, I was too cheap to pay $19.95 for a real Topsy-Turvy and definitely wasn’t paying the $49.95 for the privilege of taking home a Topsy-Turvy swing/stand or something or another; so we have modified the experiment as follows

Note - To be fair, I will run two identical experiments. That way if one croaks of natural causes the T-T won’t have to take the fall

I will use two five gallon buckets to conduct the experiment instead of the T-T’s (see attached picture)

Purchased two five gallon plastic buckets for $2.34 each
Purchased one five inch Big Beef tomato plant for $3.48 each.
Note – the pot has two nice tomato plants growing in it.

Shortly I will assemble the two projects and get them into a growing posture. I will report and update on the progress, if any, weekly or at such times I may think about it.


This message was edited May 3, 2010 5:25 PM

Oh, and for your amusement, please enjoy the antics of Bullwinkle, the Garden Kitty, if he ever wakes up. His brother Rocky should be around somewhere too.

LOL ~ that poor baby looks like you have worked him to death!

Look forward to following your TT adventures. How do you propose to suspend them?

Cool. Will be watching closely! 8D

Ok, Uncle Lizard is back for the next installment of T-T Adventure Theater. First take your new plastic bucket and destroy it by cutting about a 1.5-inch hole in the center of the bucket. This one happened to have a small circle molded into the bottom so I just cut it out. Next drill some small holes in the rest of the bottom to make sure the thing drains well. See photo.

Now comes the fun stuff. Before you get too far along make sure you have an empty pot or something handy to set the bucket on once you get the tomato stuck through the hole.

Some background information is required here. The test tomatoes were in a biodegradable pot and were too entwined to get out without risking the death of one or both of them. So we are now only planting one T-T and will plant both tomatoes in the same bucket. Couldn’t see tearing up another bucket anyway.

Now that I have the hole cut and bottom drilled, I carefully threaded the leaves and stem through the hole and let the root ball rest on the bottom of the bucket. Now set the bucket on the other pot (as mentioned above) and fill the bucket about half way with a good potting soil and watered thoroughly. After hanging it in the Nursery with the other hanging baskets I was accosted by DW and told that #$@@% bucket had to go --- NOW! After moving the T-T to under the edge of the patio I had some time to admire my handy work and decided that DW was right. It defiantly didn’t belong in the nursery.

Now that the building phase of the experiment is completed, I will post weekly on any progress that it might be making. I think the first progress report will be next Monday.

This is how I have it suspended. I hope I get a few maters off this stupid thing anyway.

Cool! Looking forward to updates.

Let the TT testdrive begin!
Two maters in the same opening? Hmmmm.
So if it didn't stay in the nursery, where did it get banished to?

Since this is an experiment and it will be getting special attention, I thought two in the same hole would be ok. If one or the other starts looking puny I’ll snip it.

It’s now living under the south facing edge of my unfinished patio cover. Far, Far away from any customer that might be offended by its (bright?) appearance. LOL.

Can it get any sun under there? Does it need an upside-down shop light underneath it? ;o)

My next-door neighbor did this last summer, with some buckets and plastic pots, and she did get some tomatoes, cukes, and peppers.

No, it gets plenty of morning and afternoon sun and the pot should help by shading it from the hot noon sun till it gets a little bigger. At any rate, I will need to turn the pot every day so it gets equal sun on both sides.

It’s encouraging to hear that someone tried this and had some success any way.

I keep forgetting to look to my left to see who's from TX. Different kind of gardening you have to do out there because of the heat!

Oh, yes, she was successful, in what looked to me to be not enough sunlight, and she didn't know a dang thing about growing plants. I think you'll do fine. The good thing about her setup was that she hung them from her second-story balcony, and she could water them right over the railing. But then, harvesting them or checking for pests (heck, she didn't know what to look for anyway) was difficult because she had to hoist them up. And a good rain or windstorm would drop produce on the first-floor resident's patio. Fun experiment. She was really excited about being able to do that.

we used them last year - definitely had problems getting the plant planted and soil added, because the instructions that came with it did not offer any useful suggestions for how to prop it up safely so that it was both balanced and sturdy...

anyway plants did end up surviving (somewhat to my surprise) but never got very large and were not, in my opinion, any larger, healthier, or better yielding than my tomatoes in the ground. also there is no place to hang them where you don't end up banging your head on the basket, or even worse on the plant and breaking it. and i was annoyed that the plant refused to grow and branch out upside down, but insisted on twisting up and around the side of the basket which made it even harder to walk past, water, etc.

i was really annoyed and disappointed. my husband, who is an inventor, thought it was really cool.

Sorry, but cool and useful don’t exactly go hand and hand to a guys way of thinking. LOL. Lord, just thinking of some of the junk I have bought over the years just because it was Cool. Well some of it really was.

The branches trying to grow up is what I’m wondering about too. But we shall see.

Mid-week update – the tomato has started turning up and is spreading out along the bottom of the pot. I guess it will continue to do this until it reaches the edge and then start growing up the sides. Wonder what is going to happen when the fruit starts weighing them down some.

Glossy 8x10 come Monday.

This message was edited May 6, 2010 12:09 PM

It’s been a week now and not much to report yet. The tomato is curled up to the bottom of the pot and several branches seem to be reaching out toward the side of the pot. That’s about it.

I think I can see where this is going though. The branches will grow up the sides of the pot and will most likely break off once it starts setting fruit. I think someone mentioned this in another post somewhere. With that kind of leverage and weight I can’t see the plant lasting too long though. the picture is a little dark but you can see whats happening. I will try to do better next week.

My neighbor tried it last year with a bucket just like yours. his plants turned and grew up and then broke at the upturn. Might work with grape tomatoes.

Yes, light stuff will probably work better. But I am still curious about this stupid idea. At such an acute angle the weight of a large fruit should bend the branch down and break it. If the weight is applied over time the branch may adjust to accommodate the weight and weird angle. I have seen some really ugly, bent up, and kinked tomato vines produce abundant fruit so who knows.

One thing I have noticed here is the box stores, HD in particular, are really pushing this thing.

I got a gift Thursday night from my secret sister at church. It's an Upside Down Strawberry Planter. I haven't had time to take it out and look at it good yet. A lady from church is going to bring me some plants for it.

When it rains, it pours. LOL. Won’t be long before they will try selling upside-down potato growers. I don’t see the reason for upside down strawberries since they do just fine trailing out of a hanging basket. HUM? Now that I’ve said that, why wouldn’t a tomato plant that vines, can’t remember the term at the moment, work just as well in a hanging basket. That way you don’t have the angled vines to worry about. I think I have just thought of another experiment to waste time on.

Keep us informed on the strawberries, ok?

That’s a scary thought. Not to mention a real head banger upper.

You might be onto something with the right side up hanging tomato thing. I would think you would have to have the lid on the bucket and grow the plant through a hole in the lid. That way the weight of the fruit could not uproot the plant.

Cajun, good thinking! I wouldn't have thought of that.
How's Hubby doing? How are you doing?

He is having a great day today. We can see light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks for asking.

I'm tired but I'll live through it. LOL Lots to do everyday just to get the basics done. Doesn't leave me much time for things I'd like to do in the garden.

I wish you luck with your experiment and am eager to hear how it goes. I did this a few years back - using the bucket. By far the biggest problem I had was that of watering. If you haven't done so, yet, You might want to consider putting a top on the bucket to decrease water loss due to dehydration.

Here, as I suspect is also the case there, summers get very hot, and even huge pots (much larger than the 5 gallon bucket) tend to dry out daily. Since the hanging pot has no saucer it's all but impossible to ever get the soil wet again once it dries out. When the soil in a pot dries completely, the soil contracts pulling away from the walls of the container. This provides a small gap down the side of the pot. Just as rain runs off of dry ground instead of soaking in, water poured on the soil in the pot will run off the soil, down the gap on the sides of the pot, and out the bottom without ever permeating the soil ball. If you look at the soil surface it will appear damp, but if you dump the plant out you will see that the soil is actually as dry and hard as concrete (except for a 1/2in or so on top).

This is where the saucer comes in handy with the normal potted plant. A deep saucer will fill up with water allowing the soil to slowly take the water back up. Since you can't use a saucer with the upside down planter (or bucket), once the soil dries out there is no way to ever get it wet again. I suspect this is the real reason why people are seeing only a few small tomatoes. With normal pots, you can also get them wet again (quickly), by submerging the pot in a large container of water, but, again, you can't dunk the upside down planter in water for obvious reasons.

Good luck. I'm keeping an eye out for your results.

Welcome to the thread DreamOfSpring

I totally agree with you on the difficulties of keeping the soil/dirt wet. That’s why we do not use it. We use a mixture of finely shredded hardwood and pine bark and sand for our potting. The shredded material allows quick drainage of excess water while soaking up and retaining enough moisture to keep the roots damp and happy for several days. It won’t get hard if it does happen to dry out more than it should. Most of our trees are in seven-gallon nursery pots and only need water about ever three days even in this Texas oven we live in. Of course keeping everything in light shade (60%) goes a long way too.

Putting a top on the bucket would be a bad idea. It wouldn’t allow enough air to the roots and would cause a rapid build up of heat and humidity that would keep the roots too wet. This would probably lead to root rot and an assortment of fungal ailments pretty quick. That’s why buying bagged plants is such a bad idea

That ol mater is still trying to figure out what’s going on and hasn’t done much yet. I doubt it will set fruit this spring since the night time temps are mostly above 65 degrees now anyway. May just have to keep it alive till fall and see what happens. }=0p

Wow, I just may look into your potting mix. Watering every 3 days sounds great. When I recommended putting the top on the pot, I thought you were using soil for a planting medium. With soil, keeping the roots too wet would not be a problem for the reasons I stated above. With soil, you would be lucky to keep even a modicum of moisture in the pot. Heat buildup probably would be an issue though.

So, do you make that potting mix yourself?

No, we buy it in bulk from Living Earth and mix the sand as needed. Mostly use the sand with the trees and larger stuff.

What I hate is that very fine peat based stuff. When it dries out you have to soak it to get it wet again. Have about forty one-gallon butterfly bushes I have to bump up this morning that are in it. Yuck.

Putting small squares of sponge in the soil helps to retain water.

Thanks. Around here it's all but impossible to keep the soil in pots, even huge pots, wet in summer. I'm pretty lazy and sometimes get very busy at work, so that doesn't help much either. My idea of perfection, is a potted plant that can live outside on our average 52in rain a year supplemented by the sprinklers that water the lawn during droughts.

A few years ago I hit upon a solution that actually allows me to do just that. Now I can even grow roses and small trees in pots and never water them. I realize that my solution probably wouldn't work well in other areas, but around here it produces great results. Here is my solution for pots:

I line the sides of pots with [unused] baby diapers before I add the soil. I buy the toddler kind. These days they all seem to have water retaining crystals embedded in them. When filling in the soil, I add liberal quantities of water retaining crystals to that as well. The water crystal hold water and supply it to the roots between rains. If the soil dries out enough to contract away from the side of the container, the baby diapers help to fill that gap. The next time it rains, the baby diapers quickly grab any water that tries to run down the inside of the pot, between pot and soil. The diapers swell with water filling the gap and pressing against the soil where they help to get the water to soak back into the soil. It works. Around here as long as there is a hole in the bottom of the pot, it is almost impossible to keep the soil too wet.

I think I'll start saving my old sponges for use in future pots. Sounds like a good idea. Thanks.

That's a smart solution. Disposable diapers?

Oh, yes, definitely disposable. I forgot to mention that. Thanks.

You mentioned the most important part... UNUSED! LOL

Look at the bright side ..... at least the used ones have been tested. }=0p

It’s raining again and I hope we get more than a half inch this time.

At least I got all the butterfly bush and lantana bumped before the rains came. But darn, I’m gonna have to put the mowing off till later because of the rain, dang. I just really wanted to do that. Guess I will just have to go dig a Shiner out of the fridge and enjoy the lightshow that came with the rain.

Ahhhhh ~ please send it this way... but not till DH slaves over the grill. LOL

What? The rain or the Shiner. LOL

Got right at 3/4 of an inch in the bucket so far and still sprinkling a little.

Not much of a drinker myself but it did go down nice. LOL. Went from very hot to down right chilly with the rain and all.

3/4 and counting. Looks like there is another line behind the last one that might make it here before it falls apart. Maybe.