[SalJ1980]

Has anyone tried growing tomatoes upside down, like this:

http://www.instructables.com/id/how-to-plant-hanging-upsidedown-tomatoes/



I'm keen to try it this year, but would be interested to hear if anyone here has has any successes or disasters first!

[Coltar223]

I tried this method for the first time last season. I used a flexi palstic container hung from three wires.
I placed it at the end of a walk way from the garden onto our deck hung from a 4x4 support post. This location enabled my wife to water it as she went around the deck every morning watering her annuals. ( I shall be setting up a micro irrigation sysytem this year for all the deck planters)

I planted a variety called 'Snackers Delight' ( indeterminate) which lived up to it's name!! Every time I walked up onto the deck I would grab a couple of toms for a quick snack. The crop was not heavy but consistant and went almost until the first frost. I did find that rotating the container in the early plant development benfited the plant.

I am going to try another two hangers this season with different varieties, Sweet 100 is one. I had thought of cutting slits in the side of the container and putting lettuce in and have a semi instant salad!!!

I do suggest using a liquid fert every three weeks also use a peat based mix to help with the water retention. It will dry out very quickly unless you keep an eye on it.

[Kagganz]

Thanks for posting  that Sal, I'm definately going to try it (with my limited space I need ideas like that).  I've just asked OH if he can make the stands and he says yes no problem.

The site mention peas in the top aswell for the nitrogen etc.

 

[Aunt Sally]

We had a member post about this last year.  I'll see if we still have the topic.

I've found a couple of topics:

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=2562.msg26753;topicseen#msg26753

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=4588.0

[SalJ1980]

Thanks Coltar for the info, and Aunty for the links!

I think I'm definitely going to try this, and see what happens!

Kagganz, I saw that you can plant other stuff in the top but I'm not too sure about this...I grew some of my toms in 5L buckets last year and when the last one - which was the biggest and had a stem nearly as thick as my wrist - finally finished cropping and died I cut it down and emptied the bucket, I was amazed to see that the contents was nearly all roots and not much compost (no idea where it had gone!) but it looked completely pot-bound. If it had been in a bigger pot it might have kept growing and growing. Anyway what I'm trying to get to is that I think that planting other stuff in the top might take away a) space for the roots and b) nutrients for both plants, if you see what I mean?  :blink:

[Carrotcake]

I've just been looking at the idea of growing upside down tomatoes and found this old thread where some of you were trying it, but couldn't find much about the results.

I have quite a lot of tom plants to grow and will probably give it a go, but how did you find it if you tried?