Download our 2 free techniques on how to grow upside down tomatoes : one using hanging flower pots, the other using a bucket. Or simply buy a ready made topsy turvy upside down tomato planter to grow your upside down tomato immediately..
How to grow upside down tomatoes in flower pots
How to grow tomato plants and maximizing space? By using your normal hanging flower pots:
growing herbs on top and
- growing smaller fruit producing tomato plants upside down, like variety Tomato Chello
You basically cut a big hole at the bottom of your pot, put a piece of fabric over it and you are ready!
How to make a great upside down tomato planter
Follow these 6 steps showing you how to grow a tomato plant in a normal hanging pot:
- Buy a large plastic hanging planter (12 inch – 25 cm or more) and buy a tomato plant: preferably cherry tomatoes.
- Make a 2inch or 5cm hole in the bottom of the pot. A saw-drill will do this on the spot.
- Otherwise draw a circle and use a normal drill, drilling at different spots on the circle until you can push or cut the complete hole out.
- Place a piece of fabric, sliced in the middle, over the bottom of your hanging pot. Ask some leftover landscaping fabric in the shop where you buy your tomatoes or hanging pots.
Slice through your fabric just enough to be able to push your tomato plant’s roots through as easy as possible.
- Push your tomato plant through the hole, upside down that is. Here comes the benefit of the upside down planter: just hang your pot and you have 2 hands free:
- use one hand to make sure your tomato plant keeps in the upside down pot
- use your other hand to fill the pot with potting soil and tamp it around the roots of your tomato plant.
How to grow upside down tomatoes in buckets
How do you grow tomatoes upside down in buckets? You start with growing them upright first:
Start with a 5 gallon (about 20 liter) plastic buckets with a lid! If you don’t want to buy them in your hardware store, then go to restaurants that use food items in buckets.
Although the size of paint buckets is good, you don’t want any paint residues in your otherwise healthy home grown tomatoes.
Always clean buckets from restaurants with natural dish washing detergent and hot water.
Turn the bucket upside down and use a utility knife to cut about a 7 cm (3 inch) hole in the bottom of the bucket. Or use the saw-drill we mentioned above in the hanging pot section.
Turn the bucket over and cut a three inch hole in the center of the lid.
Take off the lid and place several layers of newspaper in the bottom of the bucket to cover the hole.
Fill the bucket with 20 kg (40 lbs) of premium potting soil mixed with the directed amount of four month time release fertilizer, or an appropriate organic substitute like crab meal.
If you live in a hot or dry climate, replace at most 50% of the soil with Vermiculite or Perlite to improve water retention. Put the lid on top of the soil and secure.
If you have a garden, do look for some worms and add them in the soil: worms do miracles when it comes to making compost for free.
Turn the bucket upside down and cut a couple slits in the newspaper.
Dig out a small cavity and plant your tomato plant inside the bucket. Use a small tomato of about 25 cm (10 inch) and bury 80% of the plant to keep it steady and stimulate the growth of the roots.
Grow your tomato plant right side up until it reaches 25 cm (10 inch) above your bucket before you hang your tomato upside down.
Your bucket filled with soil will be heavy and become even heavier once your tomato plant starts fruiting. Therefore you need a strong and secure fixture for hanging it up at least six feet (1.80cm, just above your head). T shaped poles sold for clotheslines work well when cemented into the ground. Just look for something that can hold a small child.
How to grow tomatoes
These general guidelines of how to grow tomatoes apply to both normal grown tomatoes as upside down tomato plants.
From tomato plant selection to harvesting tomatoes:
- Look for tomato plants that are dark green in color and about as wide as they are tall. If you have pictures of your tomato variety, check whether they have flowers after 2 leaves. These kind of tomatoes grow more crop than leaves.
- If you sow your own tomato seeds, it will take from 6 to 8 weeks to produce a healthy 15 cm (6 inch) tomato plant when grown in a warm area with 6 to 8 hours of daily sunlight.
- When you live in areas like Texas, then buy "VFN" hybrid tomatoes. They tomatoes are resistant to Verticilum wilt, Fusarium wilt and Nematodes.
- Apply fertilizer every 2 weeks and when fruit first sets, start fertilizing every week.
- In order to flower, tomato plants need 8 to 10 hours daily. If your tomato plants grow tall, thin and don’t flower, most likely you need to put them in a more sunny spot.
- Always check for insects such as thrips and kill them with your bare hands once you see them. Gardening is as simple and organic as that.
- Maintain uniform soil moisture, especially when the tomatoes are getting ripe. Improper moisture (sometimes to dry and then too wet) will cause black spots on the bottom of your tomatoes. Remove these tomatoes immediately.
- For more crop: harvest your tomatoes at the first blush or pink and ripen them at room temperature.
How to grow upside down tomatoes summarized
The biggest task for growing upside down tomatoes is making your own upside down planter. You can make 2 upside down tomato buckets for about the price of 1 topsy turvy upside down tomato planter.
Once your tomato hangs, it will be free from ground diseases. With sunshine between 8 to 10 hours, and frequent fertilizing, you should be able to harvest lots of healthy, organic home grown tomatoes!
