• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

Inverted growers

Z

zappa883

To my amazement, I personally seen some regular long chillis growing unbelievably well in one of those bags you've likely seen on TV that hang up side down. Like most others including myself, everyone seems to be having either bug or some type of issue growing more so this year than in years gone by.

Has anyone out there tried one of those inverted bags to do a grow as I'm willing try anything at this point to avoid a totally disappointing grow.
 
Ha yea I know what you are talking about several people here have tried the bags I seem to remember Potawie doing it and making them out of 5 Gallon buckets. I bought my one one for strawberries and had two holes leftover so I threw in 2 yellow 7's in it and they are taking off!! Blossoms are starting and they seem VERY happy however the strawberries didnt make it darn :)
 
LUCKYDOG said:
Ha yea I know what you are talking about several people here have tried the bags I seem to remember Potawie doing it and making them out of 5 Gallon buckets. I bought my one one for strawberries and had two holes leftover so I threw in 2 yellow 7's in it and they are taking off!! Blossoms are starting and they seem VERY happy however the strawberries didnt make it darn :)
Click to expand...

Hey Zappa. I personally have 2 bag things going and the plants themselves are doing great. I actually planted 2 orange habaneros at the same time. One in a normal pot and the other in the upside-down bag. Both used the same exact soil. The plant in the pot took off immediately and is almost ready to set pods. The one in the bag has also taken off very well but it has had to contend with bending to get to the light. Once the forks got outside the shade of the bag it really took off as well. Both plants seem to be in great shape so I'm very happy with both. The other plant in the upside-down bag is a peach hab but it's still pretty young so I will let you know more later. So far I haven't had any critters on either plant but I will say that I like the convenience of the Topsy Turvy. I just hope production is the same.

On a side note, they now have "Pepper Topsy Turvys" which does not hang the peppers upside-down but has several "ports" in the bags so you can have several plants in one container. I have one of those too but haven't planted anything in it yet.

I will also try to get pictures of them both so you can see the difference.

-Josh
 
topsy turvy buckets cost a fortune here in Malaysia.

They go for RM53 in Ace Hardware (RM3.22 = USD 1)
I couldn't justify the cost just getting even one.
 
We did not waste money on those Topsy Turvy things but we did use buckets and made our own. Here is the deal...you can hang a plant upside down but it will still grow towards the sun (upward), so whats the point? We also noticed towards the base of the plant it was very woody and bumpy, kinda weird if you ask me. I understand that things like the Topsy Turvy not only are "grow upside down to get better tasting and juicer vegetables" gimmick's, but are also meant to be kind of a space saver. I think if your going to save space there is no need to do it upside down perhaps look into vertical gardening.
 
Hey that's me. I'm an inverted grower.
No, seriously I need an inverted bag to do a grow with. Like an IV I can wear on my hat to make sure I get the proper hydration while I'm watering the plants.
 
i used a 2L pet coke bottles for my inverted plants... just spray-painted the bottle for a nicer look.. but i still prefer growing plants the old way.
 
We bought one of those Topsy Turvy pepper growers just for fun. We planted 4 peppers (bhut, hab, fatalii and ???) They were pretty large plants, they had been in 20oz plastic beer cups, so they had pretty good size root systems. 3 died and one is still struggling along. I think the roots got too damaged by trying to shove a large rootball through those small ports and the plants were too big to try and feet through from the inside.

topsyturvy001.jpg


topsyturvy002.jpg


I think if the plants had bee a lot smaller, they would have fared better. Oh well...next year....
 
I gave up on the topsy turveys. They do have a few advantages and are a cool novelty item but plants just can't grow very big the way I like them to grow and its impossible to pot up leaving plants rootbound and continuously thirsty

Potawie's white ammo 2007
1671715645a0abc674f5ow8.jpg

http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/2197-growing-upside-down-peppers/page__hl__upside__st__60
 
I tried them and didn't like them...not sayin' they aren't cool....just sayin'...
 
i was kind of nibbling on the marketing gimmick but at the time they were selling for $29.99 and i thought that was a little too pricey. but once i got to thinking(it happens on occasion), my winds can be so violent that it would tare the snot out of a topsy hanging bag. last year, i remember having to pick up 1 gallon container plants that were thrown from my deck. open tomato plants with wind burn and snapped branches.

now that they sell the topsy for $9.99 i have lost the interest.
 
We tried a topsy-turvy, not impressed at all. Last year we got one of the pepper red ones, also not impressed with it. I personally don't think there's enough room for soil mix in there and sticking the roots thru those little holes is NOT easy or good for the plants. I have to find something small to grow in there, maybe some herbs?
 
Fun gimmick but not productive. Regular containers will always give you a bigger harvests in my opinion
If you want to try, its easy to make your own out of cheap pails. Theres several threads around here with D.I.Y. jobs
 
pepperfever said:
We tried a topsy-turvy, not impressed at all. Last year we got one of the pepper red ones, also not impressed with it. I personally don't think there's enough room for soil mix in there and sticking the roots thru those little holes is NOT easy or good for the plants. I have to find something small to grow in there, maybe some herbs?
Click to expand...

Right now, I still have plants small enough to fit in the holes, so i don't think the beating would be too bad. I will have my regular garden at my parents but I currently am renting elsewhere and would like to keep a couple varieties here. So I am between pots and these things. The pots would probably be ok on the stairs leading to the front door, or this place has a steel awning out front which seems sturdy enough to support one or two of these while allowing the light to get to the plant. I may still do both but I need advice on both.
 
zappa883 said:
To my amazement, I personally seen some regular long chillis growing unbelievably well in one of those bags you've likely seen on TV that hang up side down. Like most others including myself, everyone seems to be having either bug or some type of issue growing more so this year than in years gone by.

Has anyone out there tried one of those inverted bags to do a grow as I'm willing try anything at this point to avoid a totally disappointing grow.
Click to expand...



My wife and i grew strawberries last year in it... plants were small so we didn't damage the roots putting them in the bags.. they grew.. had a strawberry apiece.. and then kicked the bucket. I think that for Peppers it might be hard to regulate the water intake if your in a rainy area unless you cover the top. we didn't like it .. but everything is worth trying once.. just to see.

 
A big problem for me was that since the plant was so rootbound I had to water it multiple times a day and its hard to avoid water dripping out of the bottom onto the peppers and foliage. Best probably to water during shady periods so spilled water doesn't cause burns
 
I tried one of those things with strawberries and I also made some out of gallon milk containers for tomatoes. Putting in even small plants is extremely difficult. You have to shove them through and then make sure the roots are spread and have good soil around them. By the time you have accomplished that, you are lucky if they aren't completely traumatized and even luckier if you haven't ripped off half the roots or snapped the stem. I had a couple of the strawberries make it and eventually some blooms but no berries and they all eventually withered and died. The gallon milk jugs with tomatoes worked about the same. I had one cherry tomato make it and produce some nice fruit but it was located in shaded area. Whenever I tried to water the dang things, the water would just run along the edges and out the bottom. I had to leave the hose running in the top of it for a long time to ensure it was soaking the interior of the planter. I live in Wisconsin so I figured full sun would be best but I think those things just absorb too much heat. I might possibly experiment in the future with different variations but I wont waste any plants that I expect to produce.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top