There are many items out on the market now that aid in the growing of tomatoes upside down. Three years ago when we set up our garden, they were few and far between and expensive! So we did what we are good at: we improvised. We were among the first in our area to experiment with this new technique in gardening. As I've mentioned before, we live in a rural, agricultural area of the country. I was amused the first couple of years that we grew tomatoes upside down as we had folks that had been gardening for more years than we've been alive, that would drive by our garden just to see how our tomatoes were doing. They were keeping tabs to see if this "grow tomatoes upside down" project was going to work for those crazy kids. Well it did work for us and we've stuck to it. (Minus horrible blight that hit our whole area last year). We even had someone stop when we were out in the garden this spring and asked if we were going to do it again this year. Ah, small town community - makes me chuckle!
For our tomatoes, we started with four "tomato trees". Large poles with a 2"x4" perpendicular structure on the top. We hang a bucket off of each arm and the plants will skirt along the bottom of the bucket and then begin to grow downwards once they reach the edge.
After a minor setback the first year when one of the "trees" collapsed we modified two of the trees into a trough. There are holes drilled in the board that that is the bottom and the plants grow out of there.
From our experience we found that cleaning out and reusing large buckets from laundry detergent is better than the buckets sold at big-box home improvement stores as the reused buckets are intended to carry the necessary weight. We had handles fail on the others which lead to the collapse of one of the "trees".
I love that there is no weeding, no staking of plants, tying up vines or trying to keep fruit off the ground. On the rare occasion that a tomato is ripe enough to drop, it usually lands safely in unmowed grass as we will stop mowing under the plants once they get closer to the ground.
I've written more about growing upside down tomatoes here. Check it out! If you're new to ThrivingMama, you can click the 2010 Garden category below to see what else has been going on in my veggie garden this year.
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I see these everywhere in everyone's yards. I agree with you on the homemade buckets. Seems more practical too since you're recycling them :)
ReplyDeleteWe're growing our first hanging tomatoes this year. I love them too! Thanks for sharing your info!
ReplyDeleteStopping by from TGP. My co-workers (who have apartments) have been growing these and having great luck. perhaps I will give them a try next year.
ReplyDeleteYou crazy kids! What are you young people going to think of next? :) Sounds great, but I'm sure our obnoxious squirrel population would rob us of our tomatoes in a hot second. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteHmmm... obnoxious squirrels huh? Not sure what they'd do to them... I think our evil critters are actually chipmunks... grrr!
ReplyDeleteHmm, I just can stand the idea of watering once or twice a day- Mine in the ground I water once a week. Other than that...
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of reusing- right up my alley. Thanks for linking up to the Tuesday Garden Party!
Where we are, in the heat of summer, we water lightly about once a day. If we soak stuff down really well or get good drenching rain, we can go 2-3 days before things start to look wilted.
ReplyDeleteI love your idea for growing tomatoes upside down!
ReplyDeleteLooks good!
ReplyDeletefriends of ours bought the ones from the infomercial . . . I chuckled to myself when I realized they would be so easy to make! Kudos to you for recycling.
ReplyDeleteThis is so cool! I drive by a home that is doing this exact thing. I just never knew what it was they were doing!
ReplyDelete