Topsy Turver Tomato planter

[EweSheep]

I could not find them anywhere in my stores in Decatur, IL that has those upside down tomato planters.

I dont see any website link directly to the manufactors to get info and where I can get some (suppliers) rather than calling or ordering them online. Anyone knows???????

I would love to try to plant pickle cucumbers (gerkin size), cherry tomatoes, green beans (bush type) with these planters.

If none are found, any plans for using two gallon buckets or something of likewise?

Thanks!

 

[redoak]

We ordered the upside down tomato planters a couple years ago from a catalog. We had 2 tomatoes in the upside down planters and about 10 planted in the soil right side up. Our 2 in the upside down planters required frequent watering, even with moisture control potting soil. When they started to fruit we got blossum end rot and tomato mosaic on almost all the fruits. Our 10 tomatoes of the same variety planted right side up we had no problems with. We think the problem was with the constant watering, some water always escaped from the upside down planters threw the plant stem hole and would make the plant/fruit wet, hence causing the rot/mosaic. Without constant watering the plants would look wilted within a couple days. So we have stopped using ours and just done the traditional planting tomatoes right side up in soil.

 

[dlhunicorn]

I too had considered using these but found the price somewhat exorbitant and was thinking how I could make my own...however after reading the members experience with them I think I will forego the experiment and use the system I had last year which worked pretty well at keeping my birds from eating the young plants :
I got fairly large super cheap tall plastic pots (I found some that the garden store as throwing away as the quality of them was not such that they could be sold (plants had been repotted from them)... I cut out the bottom and put my plants in there... the highth was about the same as my birds. They left the plants alone and the roots grew out the bottom.

 

[meriruka]

Michigan Bulb Co. sells them for $19.99
http://michiganbulb.com/search.asp?ss=topsy

 

[holliewould]

You could just make your own with a 5 gal bucket. That's what I did. So far, my tomatoes are looking pretty ragged all the time. Heres a link for a do-it-yourself inverted planter made from a 2 liter?

Upside down planter

 

[chcknrs]

I made my own. I went to the dollar store and got some kids sand buckets, used the Dremel to bore out a hole in the bottom and holes in the top sides for hanging. I threaded some nylon rope through the top holes. I ran the plants through the bucket and out the bottom hole. They took some damage from doing that, but they came out of it pretty well. I made four of them for $18, and could make four more for about three bucks apiece as I still have leftover soil and rope.