How to Grow Tomatoes in an Upside Down Homemade Topsy Turvy Container

Grow tomatoes upside down

Growing tomatoes in a container is a relatively easy thing to do. Growing them upside down in a container is even easier.

There are a couple of benefits to growing your tomatoes upside down. First of all, it eliminates the need for staking or caging the plants to provide support. Also, growing them upside down relieves the stress that is put on the roots when the plants are grown right-side up.

Growing tomatoes upside down is very simple to do. Just follow these simple instructions.

Things You'll Need

• Tomato seeds
• Five gallon bucket
• Drill
• Saw bit for the drill
• Piece of mesh or plastic wrap
• Soil
• Large, heavy duty screw hook

Instructions

1. Buy tomato seeds. Browse the the site of a reputable seed dealer, such as Nature Hills Nursery (link in "Resources" section, below). Read about the flavors, growing time, and uses for each tomato variety before making your purchase.

2. 

   Grow your tomato seeds indoors, using a small Dixie-cup sized container. It should germinate within the week, and in several weeks you'll have a seedling that's about eight inches (8") tall. At this point, your tomato plant is ready to be taken outdoors.

3. 

   Prepare your five-gallon bucket by drilling a hole in the bottom with the round saw drill bit. This is going to be the hole through which you'll insert the tomato plant.

4. 

   Turn the bucket right-side-up, and place the mesh or plastic wrap across the hole. The mesh or plastic wrap will keep the soil from spilling out through the hole.

5. 

   Fill the bucket with a rich gardening soil. Try to find one that's made specifically for vegetable gardening. Miracle Grow makes a good one. When you've filled it about half-way, pour in some extended-release plant fertilizer pellets that feed the plants for three months, and mix it in.

6. 

   Fill the bucket the rest of the way, and repeat the plant fertilizer application. Mix again.

7. 

   If you live in the South, where summers are brutally hot, use the saw drill bit again, to drill a hole in the lid. Leaving the lid on will help prevent the water evaporating too quickly after you water it. If you live where the summers are more temperate, you can leave the lid off. You can water your tomato plant through this hole easily.

8. Find the place in your yard where you want your tomato plants to grow. Consider how much sun or shade you'll need, depending on the climate where you live. Tomatoes like sun, but in the south they also need several hours of shade, so that they don't crack. Screw the hook in.

9. 

   Hang the bucket from the hook.

10. 

    Poke a cross-hatch hole in the plastic or mesh.

11. Insert the tomato plant seedling into the hole.

12. Water immediately, then water every couple of days. If you live in the south, and your temperatures are in the high 90s or 100s, you may need to water twice a day.

Resources

• Nature Hills Nursery Online
• Edible Container Gardening