Topsy Turvy Tomatoes

Last year I grew an Anaheim Chile plant in a "Topsy Turvy" planter. Typically these inverted, or upside down planters are used for growing tomatoes. The plant, whether it's a chile or a tomato, hangs down from the bottom of the planter and grows down toward the ground (see http://www.topsyturvys.com/). The is a foam grommet at the bottom that prevents the soil from falling out. Watering is accomplished through a hole in the top of the planter. The Topsy Turvys come in a couple of different sizes, some can handle multiple plants.

Last year I hung the planter from the awning in my back yard. It did okay there, but that part of my home doesn't get much sun. This year I wanted to hang the planter(s) at the back of my yard, near the fence (north side of the property) so they would get more sun. The planters are about 2' in length from the bottom of the planters to the hook at the end of the hanging wires, so unless they are hung from at least 6' up, the amount distance for the plants to grow before they hit the ground is limited (see some pictures from the Topsy Turvy web photo album).

I didn't have anything along the back fence that would work to hang the planters from, so I had to install something. I considered sinking a 10' post along the fence, but that would mean that I would have to dig about 2' down and the post would be forever there. I wanted to have something that I could move around from year if I had an itch to do so.

What I ultimately decided to do was to buy a 3 gallon bucket, an 8' redwood 4"X4" post, a 1/2 wine barrel, two 60 pound bags of Quikrete, and a couple of brackets to hang the planters from.

First, I centered the post in the bucket, then filled the bucket about 3/4 full with the Quikrete, and then added water and let it seep into the concrete until a pool of water formed at the top of the bucket. I attached a post level and held the post perfectly vertical for about 10 minutes until the concrete mixture was firm enough that I could let go. I let the concrete set until the next day.

The following evening I picked the spot where I wanted the planter to be located and moved the 1/2 wine barrel to that spot. I put the bucket/post into the center of the barrel and then drilled a 1" hole in the bottom of the wine barrel half way between the wall of the barrel and the bucket, one hole on each side of the bucket. I found some spare 3/4" PVC pipe, cut it into two 2' long pieces and then pushed the pieces into the holes I had just drilled in the bottom of the barrel (the pieces of PVC need to be taller that the top of the 3 gallon bucket). I mixed the second bag of Quikrete (and the remaining Quickrete from the previous day) with water in a wheel barrel. After making sure that the 3 gallon bucket was sitting perfectly flat on the bottom of the wine barrel, I shoveled the wet concrete into the wine barrel and around the bucket. Once all the concrete was in the wine barrel (it came to about 3/4 of the way up to the top of the bucket) I used a small garden shovel to make sure that the concrete was distributed more or less equally around bucket and had filled in between the bucket and the PVC pipes and the PVC pipes and the sides of the wine barrel. For the next few hours I periodically gave the PVC pipes and bucket a turn so that the concrete wouldn't cement them into place.

The following day, after the concrete had sufficiently set, I pulled the PVC pipes out; the holes where the pipes were are now two very large drain holes. I covered the drain holes with small pieces of aluminum window screen (so the potting soil would not plug up the holes) and filled up the rest of the barrel with potting soil. I attached brackets to the top of the post and hung the Topsy Turvy planters (the brackets could also be installed before the post is set in concrete).

I can water the Topsy Turvy planters with a wand type attachment on the hose; however, what I typically do is just stand on the edge of the barrel and water from a watering can; a small step stool will also work.

I planted wild flowers in the potting soil, once they bloom I think it will look really nice.

If I ever want to relocate the planter all I will have to do is remove the soil, pull out the bucket (and post), use a hand truck or dolly to move the barrel, bucket and soil to their new location and then reassemble.
The picture above shows the my Topsy Turvys with Early Girl tomato plants. I have to watch the amount of water I put into the top of the Topsy Turvy planter. Excessive watering will cause the water to continually drip onto the plant and they will rot, I had a couple of failures because of this problem. It's also advisable to wait until the plants are just about to bust out of their transplant containers before putting them into the Topsy Turvy planters.