Growing Vegetables Upside Down

nytimes ^ | KATE MURPHY

[JoeProBono]

IF pests and blight are wrecking your plants, it might be time to turn your garden on its head. Growing crops that dangle upside down from homemade or commercially available planters is growing more popular, and its adherents swear they’ll never come back down to earth.

[JoeProBono]

[pennboricua]

From past experience the plants growing upside down do not tend to do as well as those grown the traditional method,
roots will always seek to bury themselves further into the ground, and all the roots in my planting were crowding the bottom of the containers.

[mlocher]

I think they do this in Australia all the time.

[Leg Olam]

Tried it with poor results.

[JoeProBono]

[norraad]

In Italy, the used to grow their dictators that way as well.

[dalebert]

true..we had big upside down plants with no produce.

[rochester_veteran]

My wife and I bought a couple of "topsy-turvies" last year as an experiment for a couple of tomato plants and they did pretty good. We don't have a ton of room in our garden area and the "topsy-turvies" saved us space.

[mlocher]

In Italy, the used to grow their dictators that way as well.

LOL!

[Vigilanteman]

Actually, they only harvested them that way. :-}

[pennboricua]

Mine produced for a while then the roots started to cluster and rot at the bottom of the container.

[milwguy]

Like the article says, it works well with lighter tomatoes like grape or cherry. I have used the upside down method for a few years with good results. The heavier tomatoes do not do so well.

I also tend to use a mixture of potting soil, manure/hummus, and garden soil to keep the soil looser and nutriet rich. Have to water often because they do dry out quick.

[norraad]

Works for me, can’t wait for the next harvest festival, n’est pas?

[davisfh]

I agree. Gravity reigns supreme. My wife keeps insisting on an upside-down tomato plant or two every year. Last year we had a one digit crop - that digit being zero.

[dalebert]

I have 2 raised beds about 2ft x 15 ft and grow a tremendous amount of produce with a few weeds. I am a lazy gardener.

[mad_as_he$$]

Had very bad performance form two TopsyTurvey’s. The same variety plant planted in the ground gave 5x the fruit.

[pennboricua]

Same here my knees are not what they used to be.
My corn did excellent last year, as did the watermelons, small 9” variety.

[JoeProBono]

[far sider]

Yeah. it probably works great down there.

[rochester_veteran]

...it works well with lighter tomatoes like grape or cherry

We grew grape tomatoes in the topsy turvies and they did well. We grew the larger jet stars in the ground.