Upside down tomatoes

I finally got my tomato starts planted. I bought two plants almost a month ago -- one Early Girl and one Sweet Hundreds. But the night temperatures have been way below 50 ever since. I put them outside on the few warm days we've had, but dragged them back inside at night.

The hanging planter I got is upside down -- you put the roots of the plants into the bottom of the container and fill it with dirt from the top. Then hang, water and feed, and hope the sunshine holds out.

Has anyone tried this? Did it work?

Ir's not easy to grow tomatoes in Seattle (short season, no great heat) but I've hung it against a west-facing white wall and I'm hoping for the best!

Otherwise, it's pickled green tomatoes for the winter!

If the planter is imported from Australia this will probably work otherwise I think the potting mix will fall out.

Ps all potted plants do better with potting mix rather than garden soil.

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Well, they haven't fallen out yet. And I did use potting soil, amended with a light dose of fertilizer.

I'll water again this evening and we'll see how they look after a sunny day!

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I saw something in a nursery called something like a water water wall. It was a set of plastic, water filled cells that surround the plants outdoors and hold heat overnight. Their demo plants had badly twisted vines, but they were undeniably tomatoes.

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Those grow bags are very popular here. I've seen quite a few people grow tomatoes successfully in them - kind of funny when they're alternated with flower bags hanging from porch roofs.

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roger wrote:

I saw something in a nursery called something like a water water wall. It was a set of plastic, water filled cells that surround the plants outdoors and hold heat overnight. Their demo plants had badly twisted vines, but they were undeniably tomatoes.

You're making me glad I stopped following all this stuff..

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the plants hang upside down? why? is it a space issue? weird, never heard of such a thing.

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Hi Dag!

It's to keep the tomatoes off the ground, away from slugs and bugs and crawly things that eat your crop before you get to it.

It also is a space-saver, like a container garden. I have a small yard, but even a person with only a balcony could use one of these... of course, they'd have to have awfully big tomato plants to drag on the ground from a balcony! Smile

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[quote="Wy"]It's to keep the tomatoes off the ground, away from slugs and bugs and crawly things that eat your crop before you get to it.

[/quote]

I have seen the upside down grower in a catalogue and have been intrigued ever since, however, I don't understand how you grow your tomatoes, if this is to keep them off the ground.
I don't know anyone who lets their tomatoes creep over the ground.
Surely, you'd have them like this:

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When I was growing up we always had about a 1-acre veggie garden, with lots of tomatoes. They grew as vines, on the ground. I never heard of staking tomatoes or using those round tomato cages until I was an adult.

Also, in my case in particular, it gets the plant and the pot into better sun than it would have on the ground. The plants are picking up nicely after their transplant. I'll post a pic if I can get to it...

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