".."ever since we installed our upside down shower the neighbors have become very friendly, seems their even returning stuff I never owned"
Posted on 05/24/2010 3:24:40 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
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. ----snip---
The advantages of upside-down gardening are many: it saves space; there is no need for stakes or cages; it foils pests and fungus; there are fewer, if any, weeds; there is efficient delivery of water and nutrients thanks to gravity; and it allows for greater air circulation and sunlight exposure. While there are skeptics, proponents say the proof is in the produce.
Tomato and jalapeño seedlings sprout from upside-down planters fashioned out of milk jugs and soda bottles that hang from the fence surrounding the Redmond, Wash., yard of Shawn Verrall, a Microsoft software tester. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
There was a ton of people on YouTube that did video documentaries of their upsidedown gardens. One particular man in Georgia had tons of success with it.
I might do a couple this year.
its a gimmick IMO
Roots grow toward sustenance. If it’s a gimmick then why does it work?
I’ve experimented with tomato plants the past couple of years. It can be successful, but regular watering is essential! The soil dries out very quickly — often in just a day.
The first year I tried upside-down tomato gardening, I got great plant growth and abundant fruiting. But we went on vacation during a hot streak, and I wasn’t able to water. It didn’t kill the plant, but I wound up with blossom-end rot on the fruit because of the uneven watering.
If you try this, be prepared to water nearly every day, and give the plants some ‘tomato food’ to boost the calcium content of the soil. Those two elements are critical in reducing the potential for blossom-end rot.
As a control, last year I did one upside-down, and another plant of the same variety in a large container on the deck. I was obsessive about watering and feeding both, and both bore delicious fruit without blossom-end rot. The one on the deck produced larger tomatoes. This year, I’m abandoning the upside-down experiment.
“its a gimmick IMO”
I agree. If it worked as well as the TV commercials imply, then why are the leaves up-side-down on the plants they show. Check it out next time. If the plants they show were grown in that fashion the top of the leaves would be facing up instead of down.
“its a gimmick IMO”
I agree. If it worked as well as the TV commercials imply, then why are the leaves up-side-down on the plants they show. Check it out next time. If the plants they show were grown in that fashion the top of the leaves would be facing up instead of down.
I have garden pests, his name is groundhog.
Last year I did all my vine type produce in hanging containers. I plan to do it again this year. The neighbors called my place the Hanging Vegetable Garden.
The drawback is they were very, very heavy and needed watering sometimes twice a day! Even though they needed water that often, I still used less water overall. I’ll be doing my tomatoes and cucumbers this week. I don’t quite see the point of doing peppers that way though.
I already have several strawberry baskets beginning to yield ripe fruits! I’m picking them for my breakfast cereal this morning in fact.
I also do potatoes in garbage cans too for easy harvesting.
So you have to consume them through the used port!
They do tend to curl upward, but there's substantial growth of the main stem, and it's generally downward.
Last year, I had one hanging from the center of an arch. When the fruit began to get heavy, I supported a couple of the heavier 'branches' by tying them to the sides of the arch. 'Twas no more bothersome than caging them, as if they were growing them in the ground.
It's not a gimmick, but it does require care and attention to be successful.
Spoke with my sister who is a horticulturalist about this and she said the exact same thing. The plants need an extreme amount of water.
".."ever since we installed our upside down shower the neighbors have become very friendly, seems their even returning stuff I never owned"
One of the reasons this works (especially in cooler climates) is soil temperature plays a role in growth.
Heat loving plants like tomatoes and peppers will simply sit there and not grow an inch in soil that hasn’t warmed sufficiently (like in a cool or wet spring). Containers such as these will warm up much faster, extending the growing season.
Best stocking stuffer for a gardening friend is a SOIL THERMOMETER.
Will tell you the exact proper time to plant each crop.
Btw, if you live close to one of the Great Lakes (within an hour or so) and want to know the temperature of the soil, watch the nightly weather forecast. They will give you the lake temperature. Within a couple of degrees, that will be the temperature of the soil in your yard.
:)
We tried this last year with tomatoes and had poor results. Presumably some folks are doing better than we did because I hear others talking about doing it.
and with that - leaves grow towards the sun- not downwards
I haven’t tried upsidedown planters but if I do, I’d add water gel crystals to the soil. Just one teaspoonful, when hydrated, holds over a quart of water and releases water to the plants as needed. I use them in hanging baskets to cut down on watering. I’ve used them for 3 years and originally got mine from some firm in San Antonio TX.
The article mentions that this helps protect the crops from deer, but it seems to me you’d have to hoist the containers very high to deter deer. The little darlings love to eat the flowers in my hanging pots. They don’t have any problem with pots hanging from typical shepherd’s hooks.
Not a gimmick. My mother has been doing this for a couple of years, using the one “as seen on TV!” and has had magnificent results, compared to her in-ground plantings.
The article is right about watering. My GF had a TopsyTurvy up last year, and the need to water it - a lot - is great.
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