Monday, August 25, 2008

Growing Upside Down Tomatoes: Watering Schedule

I thought it was time for an upside down tomato plant update.

Photobucket

I’m happy to say that I have five green tomatoes growing on my plant and several flowers that I hope will turn into tomatoes. Keep your fingers crossed.

“What a minute”, you say, “You planted two tomato plants in your topsy turvey upside down tomato planter, not one. What happened to the other plant?”

Easy. I overwatered the planter and lost one of two tomato plants to root rot. Oops.

Upside Town Tomato Watering Schedule Old and New



More than a few of you have asked me how often I water my topsy turvey upside down tomato plants. The planter’s instructions said to water the plants every day because the drainage holes in the upside down planter will make the soil dry out more quickly than a conventional potted plant.

This didn’t work so well. I hung the tomato planter from the under hang over my back porch way over my head but out of the way when the long tomato vines began to grow. I have to stand on a chair in order to water the hanging tomato planter. Because I’m short, I can’t quite see where the hole is in the top of the plant and I have to guess. That being the case, when I watered the planter with a non-spouted 2-liter soda bottle I got a daily unexpected bath from the water splooshing over the top of the planter until I felt around with the top of the bottle and shoved it in the watering hole in the top of the planter. File this bright idea under DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.

And like I said before, apparently, 2 liters of water was too much water for my planter to comfortably chug on a daily basis because one of my two tomato plants developed root rot and died. Oops. This is another one to file under DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.

After removing the dead tomato plant from the planter I was determined not to overwater Tomato Plant Number 2 (which got a field commission and was promoted to Tomato Plant Number 1.) Instead of giving Tomato Plant Number 1 a bottle of soda each day I decided to give it a bottle of wine every other day.

Wine? Well, OK, not exactly. I used an empty wine bottle as a watering can for my upside down tomato plant. The wine bottle worked much better than the 2-liter soda bottle because the longer neck of the wine bottle fit perfectly into the hole in the top of the planter much better than the soda bottle ever did. The wine bottle holds just enough water to give the plants a healthy drink while not overwatering the plant. Best of all I don’t get an unexpected bath when I water my overhead hanging plants!

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6 comments:

Amy @ The Q Family said...

Good effort. At least you have one tomato survive. I don't know how many I will have left if I have to do it myself. I don't have much luck with plant.

-Amy @ The Q Family

Anonymous said...

I have never heard of growing tomatoes upside down - the things you learn (I learn) on the internet! I eally like your blog, have bookmarked you, and will be back...and thanks for commenting at Kitchen Retro. So you actually have seen a Buttoneer! Now that I think of it it would be good to have for reattaching buttons to shirts...

Anonymous said...

Gardening is always a learning experience. Sounds like you've got a master plan that works so next year it will be a snap. I've had the upside down flowering pots in past years and had the same problem with it drying out so fast...you really need to keep an eye on them. Glad to hear you'll be having tomatoes one day soon.

Deb DiSalvo said...

OMG - I have wanted to try this for that past 2 years now, and lazy me, never got around to it. I LOVE tomatoes - I eat them every day and the home-grown ones are simply the best! I will definately have to do this next year!
Cheers,
Deb

Anonymous said...

Hi. I came across your site while looking for info regarding hanging tomatoes. I just received a hanging kit for Christmas from a relative and I figure it probably cost them about $30.00. Well, after I put it up I got to thinkin’ that I could make one a lot cheaper. I went and purchased two reusable grocery sacks (the material is identical to the store bought kit) for a $1.00 apiece. Then I bought a 55 quart bag of Lamberts potting soil for $10.00. Throw in two Home Depot five gallon bucket lids at $1.00 each and two Celebrity tomato plant starters at $1.25 each. Toss in a couple of scoops of Osmocote that I had layin’ around and that’s it. Total cost for the two, $16.50. Below is a link to a video of my garden and the hanging tomatoes. I live in sunny south Florida so I start my garden around November when the threat of hurricanes has passed. I was gonna make a video of me making the homemade kits but I probably would have gotten the camera all dirty, haha. Hope you enjoy.

Bullseye

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qja6TZTl1SY

Guest said...

it is so good for future thought

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