Intro:
After all the success we had last year with growing our own vegitables, we not only wanted to try it again this year, but we wanted
an even larger yield. I love tomatoes and we saw the Topsy Turvy on tv, so we thought we'd make our own. Below is the progress of this
experimental method of growing plants.
Initial Germination (4-1-09):
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You have to grow your plant to about 6 inches before you can use the topsy turvy, because if you start them as
seeds in there, they will just grow out the top of the bucket. So we germinated ours in a tuna can. It's actually
easier to just buy the little vegi plants from Lowes or something, it will save you about 2 to 3 weeks.
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Construction and Transplant (5-1-09):
Building it wasn't too bad, the support structure was actually the hardest part. The planter is just a 5 gallon paint bucket
with tiny water holes in the bottom and the larger stem holes on the side. When our seedlings were big enough, we gently
pushed them through the holes then filled the bucket the rest of the way up with dirt and hung it.
2 Weeks later (5-15-09):
The growth is rapid compared to the tomato plants I'm growing in a normal flower pot. You can see they are still growing
up towards the sun, though. This may become a problem.
Possible Failure (5-26-09):
The plants are cotinuing to grow upwards, and because of the weight, one has already twisted and cracked it's stem at
only about 5 inches from the base. The leaves on some of the extremedies are even beggining to wilt. This plant may
be a gonner :-(
Recovery! (6-7-09):
Well I totally wasn't expecting this! The twisted and snapped tomato plant has not only recovered, it is now the
strongest out of the bunch. All I did was gently straightened the two parts of the stem so they were in a straight
line again, and after a few days, it began to scab over and expand in diameter. It has a terible scar from the
initial split, but the whole stem is solid again.
The other really interesting thing is that this plant is the only one flowering. I think it might have to do with the
plant thinking it's about to die because of the split stem, so it had to speed up all of it's processes to try to fruit
before it dies. I guess we'll see how quickly it starts yielding soon!
Notes:
So far I've already learned from others who have made their own, you are only supposed to plant medium or small tomatoes.
Not the big ones like better boy or pretty pink like I did here. Their stems grow too thick and are less likely to flex down as
they grow heavier.
Also, a design revision for next year: put the stem holes in the very bottom of the bucket, not the sides. This will help
reduce their likelyhood of snapping as they begin to curve up.
Success (8-1-09)
Nothing was as I expected it with this thing. The plants grew upward despite their inverted orientation,
some of the stems twisted and even cracked, and water retension was always a concern. But after all these
little issues and complications, the plants not only survived, they've begun yielding! Curently we have plucked about 8
tomatoes and there are plenty more on the way.
On the average, the tomatoes are a little on the small side (about the size of an apricot), but they taste wonderful! Khine says the small size is due
to a lack of nutrients, but I think it's because they only get about 3 hours of sun a day due to their location (on my back porch).
Either way, the end result was favorable. We'll deff be doing this next year!
