GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

30-05-2005, 08:02 AM

In article says...
I recently read an ad for containers used to plant tomatoes. Thing is
you plant them upside down.
The pots are inverted and you hang them.. They say it eliminates the
need for staking the plant up and they get more sun. Has anyone ever
planted tomatoes upside down? If so did it actually work? I sounds
like an interesting concept. I'd like to try it but I am a bit
hesitant to try it with many plants in case it doesn't work.

Other than creating a novelty item, why would anyone want to do this? If
I understand this concept correctly, that the plant grows upside down,
gravity may indeed keep the main stalk growing straight down (whether
that's true or not I don't know because I thought a stalk will tend to
want to grow up and thus loop around), and assuming that is true, how can
one assume that the branches of a tomato plant won't break or succumb to
gravity because it's upside down instead of right side up? I would
assume either way you would want to provide support for the lateral
branches.

I also doubt this is easier than right side up growing. Assuming it is
true that you do save on staking the plant, you still have to build a
structure that holds very heavy bags of dirt 6 or 8 feet high, tomato
plants can grow that big. I would think that building a structure like
that would be a lot more complicated than just staking the stalk and in
either case you might end up building a cage anyway to support the
branches.