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Upsidedown containers

W

wordwiz

In the Growing Hot Peppers thread, there are lots of recommendations about keeping lights close to plants. I don't disagree with the recommendations. But, sometimes there seems to be forces at work.

Just for fun, I am trying to grow a tomato in a container but from the bottom. Tried it the same day I transplanted another plant to a 4-gallon container. The latter is doing great. The one in the upside down pot went through transplant shock, but has been growing. But it isn't growing toward a CFL light directly under it. It's trying to grow upward, which means going east and west instead of north and south.

This is going to be an interesting experiment, but I wish I had a camera to film it!

Mike
 
That's due to gravity. All plants that grow above ground know which way is up and grow that way regardless of the light source.

One cool experiment we did in 3rd grade (long long time ago) was to keep turning the plants a different direction and they all grow up but had this groovy shape to the main plant.
 
Here's an upside-down pepper I grew last year

1671715645a0abc674f5wo1.jpg
 
Is there supposed to be advantages of growing upside down?
 
AlabamaJack said:
Is there supposed to be advantages of growing upside down?
Click to expand...

For tomatoes, I think the idea is that you avoid all the soil borne diseases that they're susceptible to, and you avoid slugs and other creepy crawly nasties. Plus you don't have to worry about staking or caging the vines.

Potawie did a pepper that way to see if it would work and because he's Potawie and does cool stuff in containers.
 
I thought it was cool the first time I've seen it. now it's practical as well!
What do you need to do to prepare the pot for upsidedown growing?
 
It takes a little planning but isn't hard to do. I used a 4-gallon or so plastic planter. Cut the bottom out of it. Slid the plant through the hole and held it up while lining the bottom with newspapers and adding enough potting soil underneath the rootball so that pretty much only the leaves were hanging out the bottom. I then placed the pot upside in another pot (large enough so the wasn't touching the bottom) and filled it with dirt, watering it once I had about three inches of dirt over the roots. Added more dirt, raised it up and hung it.

I'm using a 2700K, 20 watt CFL under it but once it gets large enough to get it's own sunlight, I'll turn off the CFL.

http://www.valleycat.net/tomato.jpg

Mike
 
Wow Potawie, cheers for the photo. I have never seen anything like that, I imagined you would be talking about something like that but then thought that's just me being too vivid with my imagination again. Also I thought it might be an American word for a hanging basket :oops:
 
i'm too cheap for the topsy turvy or whatever it's called, and i was consistently screwing up that juice bottle trick where you make a little reservoir, someone mentioned it when i posted a thread about upside down planters (also i just couldn't drink that much juice anymore, i'm a water person) so i bought a 99 cent hanging basket which i'll cut a hole in the bottom of (i should really get on this cuz the plant i want to put in there is getting on in size...) i don't know if there'll be enough room for roots but it's mostly an experiment to get ready to do this with eggplants in there this summer.
 
GB,

I like the hanging baskets. I just cannot get a tomato plant to survive. I'm thinking about trying a cucumber. Maybe train it to grow around a window.

Wait a month or two and I'm better you can buy the baskets (full of flowers) for a song and a dance at garden centers.

Mike
 
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