Tips from the Potting Bench

It seems like it just keeps raining. For the past few weeks, there really hasn’t been much to do in the garden, except weed during breaks in the weather. It’s been too early for the hot weather veggies, and too late for most of the cool weather veggies, so what’s a gardener to do? Plan and dream and read, of course. I took the opportunity to check into those hanging upside down tomato planter thingies…I think the named brand is the Topsy Turvey. Many, and I do mean many, people were asking about them last year, the company making these things definitely did a good advertising job. What I was wondering was, is this all hype, or does it really work?

So I used a rainy day and did some research on-line to see what people who had actually used one had to say. The benefits of this growing method are many. The top one being that you don’t have to have great garden soil, or even have a garden to grow tomatoes this way. Growing upside down puts less stress on branches, provides better air circulation, may increase yields and decrease insect problems. The draw backs are that you have to keep an eye on watering, they tend to dry out pretty fast in hot climates. Soil level is also crucial to keep an eye on, replacing soil as needed isn’t a big deal but you have to check on it every once in a while. It is also best to choose smaller fruited tomatoes because of the overall weight of the vines. Choosing determinate varieties is a good way to go because they produce smaller vines than indeterminate vines. I’ll stop right here and refresh your memory about determinate and indeterminate tomato varieties.

A determinate tomato grows to a certain size and stops, it then flowers, sets fruit and ripens the fruit pretty much all at the same time, within a week or two. The benefit to these varieties is that you can get away without trellising them and you get all your tomatoes for putting up at the same time. Indeterminate tomatoes grow and grow and grow, flowering, setting fruit and ripening fruit all the time up until a frost takes them out. They do need to be trellised or caged.

So, would I buy a Topsy Turvey, as advertised for $19.95? No, but I would try growing upside down tomatoes using a 5 gallon bucket. Here’s how to do it. Get yourself a bucket that hasn’t had anything toxic in it, or buy a new one for $5 at the hardware store. Drill a 2 or 3” hole in the bottom of the bucket, then get your tomato plant ready by gently knocking some of the dirt from around its roots. You can either insert the root ball into the hole from under the bucket or gently thread the leaves down through the hole from inside the bucket. Hold the root ball in your hand while you place some sphagnum peat moss around and under it. The goal is to create a little nest that the root ball sits in, so it won’t slip back through the hole. The moss will also prevent soil from escaping through the hole. Once the root is secure, cover the bottom of the bucket with about 2 inches of moss, and then start adding a good quality potting soil so that about ¾ of the bucket is full. Next, add a handful of compost or organic fertilizer, then finish filling the bucket with soil. It’s a good idea to hang the bucket in its final resting spot now using the bucket’s bail. The site you choose should have full sun or at the very minimum at least 6 hours of sun per day. Once the bucket is hung, you should very gently and thoroughly water so that water seeps out the hole in the bottom. Top up the soil if it settles too much, and check the soil level occasionally as some may drain out the hole when you water. You can companion plant basil in the top of the bucket, which should help stabilize the soil.

That’s all there is to it, except of course keeping it watered and fertilized. The biggest complaints I read about this system are about watering. Tomatoes really hate drying out and then getting drenched, it causes fruit cracking and blossom end rot, so the trick is to maintain even moisture levels. This method also works with peppers. It is almost, but not quite time to plant tomatoes out, in the meantime you can make a few tomato buckets and give this technique a try.