Recently some students in the Gardenerd Organic Gardening Series asked about growing tomatoes upside-down. I can happily say that I’ve done that without any special equipment – and it works!
One year, on the patio of our apartment, my husband and I decided to take a regular hanging planter and plant a tomato in it. Instead of staking it up, we let the vines hang down. It flowered, it set fruit, the fruit ripened and we ate well. There are a couple of caveats, however, to be aware of when using a regular hanging planter:
1) The branches do bend or crease at the base and that can compromise the integrity of the vine. This happened with our tomato plant, which shortened its life a little, but all in all it was okay.
2) Watering the plant gets the vines wet, which is generally not a good idea. Tomatoes can develop airborne fungi much more readily if the leaves are wet. If you can make watering a two person job, one person holds the vines out of the way while the other person waters (and the water drains out the bottom of the pot).
A solution to both of these issues is to get something that is specifically designed for growing tomatoes upside-down. I opened the Gardener’s Supply catalog this evening, and lo and behold – there it was on the first page.
Gardener’s Revolution Planter
They also have a stand available so you can grow more than one at a time:
Four-Armed Plant Hanger
Just thought I’d share that since there was such synchronicity in the air this week. You can click on the links above to be jettisoned straight to Gardener’s Supply. It’s not a bad place to be.
Having read this I thought it was rather enlightening. I appreciate
you taking the time and energy to put this informative article together.
I once again find myself personally spending a significant amount of time both reading and posting comments.
But so what, it was still worth it!