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Hanging upside-down planter

Wulf

Wulf

I did a search and found one thread, but it was just discussing the failures in one particular type of planter and not the concept in general.

I picked up one of those planters (dirt cheap, store was getting rid of stock) that is supposed to let you grow tomatoes with the plant upside down. Tomato, pepper, close enough. The pot itself is actually bigger than the ones I have my plants in on the ground, so structural integrity of the hook is probably a bigger concern than it not having enough room for roots.

Has anybody had any good experiences with these things? Or should I just let my fiance grow a tomato in it and save my peppers some trauma?

Side note - Will any tomatoes actually produce indoors with low light, or are they basically peppers in every growing-relevant way?
 
I got the topsy turvy pepper planter off eBay. I've got better faster production there than on any of my other containers. Just remember to water obsessively. There's no such thing as too much water with an upside-down planter. I give mine a gallon and a half everyday and it still wants to wilt by the time I get off work.
 
Just a gimmicky thing. I would nevere use them again unless I only had a small balcony
Try a site search for topsy turvy or upside down (search titles only in advanced search). This has been discussed many, many times
 
Thanks.

And I'll try the advanced search Potawie, I've just been using the quick search with limited success.
 
If your plants are in smaller pots than that, you need to repot them for best results unless your limitation is having the entire area that gets good sun, already canvased with enough foliage that anything larger would be mostly shaded by the other surrounding plants.

Tomatoes and peppers aren't all that close when considering growing orientation because tomatoes are a vine that doesn't attempt to grow perpendicular to the ground. Tomatoes need lots of light for best results. Indoors with low light you'll have a small plant with few fruit.

Consider whether it's a determinate or indeterminate type tomato. Most people grow indeterminate types and in good conditions over a long season that peppers do best in, a tomato would be approaching 10' tall by the end of the season, more or less depending on a few factors. Certainly not with a little pot but the point is a tomato is a relatively larger plant and needs a LOT of soil to reach its full potential. A 10 gallon pot would be undersized and limit growth quite a bit.
 
This is an older shot, but these are the pots my plants are in.

IMG102.jpg


The bottom one is a bigger one, and I've got about 6 in pots that size. I figure with my late start in the year these will get me through to next year, at which point bigger pots will be a must. I plan on overwintering, but... I've killed before, so we'll see how it goes. Are those pots already too small for seeds that were planted in May, or do you think they're passable?

Thanks for the tomato advice, that's yet another plant I know nothing about.
 
Age not so important as how the plant is filling the pot. Need more current pics to help determine if they need repotted. They look fine in that picture, but you said it was an older shot.
 
I dunno if this (warning, 2MB pic, forgot to resize) gives enough of a sense of scale, but that's roughly the size of most of my plants, give or take 20%.

Except for one serrano (large pic), that thing grew straight up and is maybe 150% as tall but is just leaves on a stick....
 
You may get roughly 70% the size you would in a larger pot (5 gallon or more), in the largest one you pictured. Less if you had started earlier and had a longer growing season. Maybe 50% in the smaller pots pictured, it's hard to tell. These % are visual impressions but a plant that looks 50% may be only 1/3rd the mass. Depends on amount of sun too and soil quality, plants can stagnate or really take off once they get a lot of leaves on them. Leaves on a stick makes it seem like either too small a pot or too little sun.
 
Those pots look fine for now. You'll have to wait and see what size they get to be, but with a short growing season they should not be stunted much, but will need larger pots if overwintered for next year... repotting can happen then, not needed now.
 
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