How to Grow Tomatoes Upside Down

How to Grow Tomatoes Upside Down

One of the newer, more innovative approaches to the art of growing tomatoes have been growing tomatoes upside down. Tomato plants grown this way have been observed to bear increased yields when compared to plants grown the "normal" way (right side up) in containers.

This increased productivity is due to increased air circulation to the leaves when the plant is hanging in midair, more disease resistance from avoiding contact with garden soil, and improved nutrient absorption from watering and fertilizing from the bottom of the plant. But the best thing about growing tomatoes this way is that staking is not needed! Growing downwards, the entire weight of the plant will be evenly distributed through all its branches.

You can grow any variety of tomatoes upside down. However, smaller fruited varieties are preferred, for obvious reasons. But with any variety, if the plant gets too big and starts to touch the ground, simply cut off the growing tip to stop vertical growth, and the plant will develop laterally. A few varieties that are more suitable for being grown upside down are Early Girl, Sun Gold, Bush Celebrity, and Pink Ping Pong.

Some pruning may be needed to keep plants under control. Thankfully, pruning is an easy task when the plant is grown upside down, as the branches are more accessible. Very large plants that bear a lot of fruits all at once are not desirable for growing tomatoes upside down. The last thing you want is to have the container collapse from the weight of all the fruit, which is really, really bad for the plant. Unless you have a very solid container, it's preferrable to prune the plants to a manageable size. Yes you won't see maximum fruit production via pruning, but you will be maximizing the efficiency of the tomato plant. A well-pruned plant will bear less fuits at one time, but the fruits will ripen faster and be of higher quality than a plant that's not pruned.

Building an Upside Down Planter
The ideal planter for growing tomatoes upside down is a 5 gallon bucket with a metal handle. Studies have shown that 5 gallons is the ideal container size to maximize the space/production ratio of tomato plants.

A light growing medium should be used. A good mixture would be 50% sphagnum peat moss, 30% compost, and 20% perlite. Here are the steps to building an upside down planter for growing tomatoes upside down:

1. Drill a hole about 3” in diameter on the bottom of the bucket
2. Prepare your tomato transplant by removing all but its top set of (big) leaves.
3. Hang the bucket right-side-up with its handle somewhere low so you can reach to the bottom. Remove your transplant from its container and carefully stick the plant through drilled hole so that the plant is sticking out from the bottom of the bucket. Hold the plant in place so that there is about an inch of stem sticking out of the bottom.
4. With one hand holding the plant, start packing peat moss inside the bucket around the stem all the way up to its roots. Evenly distribute the moss around the bucket, and carefully let go of the plant, making sure that it’s securely anchored inside the bucket.
5. Fill the bucket with the tomato growing mixture until about an inch from the top.
6. Hang the bucket at its final destination where it will reside and water thoroughly. Note that most varieties will grow to at least 5 feet, so keep that in mind when choosing where to place the plant. Once the plant has grown to a respectable size, it's not advisable to move the planter around, as that will disrupt root formation and possibly break a few branches.
7. About 5 days after transplanting, fertilize from the top with a water-soluble fertilizer.

And there you have it, a good-to-go tomato plant grown upside down. Like all container vegetables, make sure to water and fertilize it regularly. Mulching the opening of the planter is also recommended to prevent evaporation and water loss. Red pine mulch is the most popular, but you can also cut up a black garbage bag and use that cover the opening of the bucket. Tie the bag around the bucket with a piece of string, and cut an opening on the bag where water and fertilizers can enter.

An automated container drip watering system can also be set up with your upside down planters. This reduces the hassles of watering.
Growing Tomatoes in Pots...

HOW TO GROW TOMATOES

HOW TO GROW TOMATOES

Things You'll Need:

• Gardening Gloves
• Hanging Baskets
• Potting Soil
• Garden Trowels
• Garden Hoses
• Shovels
• Fertilizer Analyzer
• Tomato Seeds
• Eggshells
• Compost Makers
• Garden Stakes
• Tomato Plants
• Fertilizers
• Cloches

1. Step 1

   Buy tomato plants at the nursery for planting after all danger of frost has passed. Otherwise, start seeds indoors six to eight weeks before the last expected frost.

2. Step 2

   Choose a site that gets full sun and has soil with a pH of 6.0 to 7.0. Tomatoes need plenty of warmth to taste their best, so provide shelter from chilly breezes, whether with a windbreak of trees, a garden wall, or a vine-covered trellis.

3. Step 3

   Amend the soil with plenty of compost; tomatoes need soil rich in organic matter.

4. Step 4

   Harden off seedlings, whether store-bought or homegrown, and move them to the garden when nighttime temperatures remain above 50 degrees F.

5. Step 5
   

   Dig a hole the size of a basketball for each plant. Add a shovelful of compost and a handful of crushed eggshells (for needed calcium) to each hole.

6. Step 6
   

   Set the plants 12 to 18 inches apart depending on variety (see the seed packet or plant label). Plant them deeply - up to the fourth branch from the top - to encourage new root development.

7. Step 7
   

   Place a paper collar around each plant to deter cutworms, and cover the plants with cloches or floating row covers to protect them from insects and cool temperatures.

8. Step 8
   

   Remove the covers when the weather has warmed, mulch the soil and install any supports the plants will need as they grow.

9. Step 9

   Make sure plants get between one and two inches of water every week, and to ensure a bumper crop, spray them with compost tea or seaweed extract four times: two weeks after transplanting, after the first flowers appear, when the fruits reach the size of golf balls, and when you spot the first ripe tomato.

10. Step 10

    Pick tomatoes when their color is glossy and even, and their texture midway between soft and firm.

11. Growing tomatoes in pots....9-tomato-growing-tips

9 Tomato Growing Tips that will Significantly Boost Production

9 Tomato Growing Tips that will Significantly Boost Production

These 9 little things are easy to do, but will make a big impact on your tomato growing results.

1. Deep Transplanting
This is the most important growing tomato tip that will most likely affect your success: When first transplanting tomato plants into the garden, remove all but the top set of the leaves. Dig a deep hole, and burrow the entire stem up to the top leaves, which should be sticking just a little above ground. Transplanting like this will cause the entire stem that was burrowed to turn into root, creating a strong root foundation for the tomato plant. That plant will be able to take in more nutrients and grow bigger and healthier as a result. Fertilize 5 days after transplanting. (Fertilizing too early before the roots are established can harm the roots).

2. Automated Drip Watering
Consider using drip irrigation with an automatic timer for all your watering needs. Drip irrigation provides regular and even watering, which is good for tomato plants. Studies have also shown that dripping allows water to penetrate deeper into the ground, thus increasing uptake by plant roots.

3. Mulching
Use mulch to reduce water consumption when watering plants, especially in containers. Mulching will greatly reduce water loss due to evaporation. It will also act like a carpet on the growing area, covering up the soil and keeping the area clean to hinder pests and diseases. Red pine mulch is ideal, but lots of things can be used as mulch, including plastic wrapping.

4. Fertilizing
Here’s another important tomato growing tip: fertilize tomato plants regularly (every 2-3 weeks). Follow the directions given for the particular brand of fertilizer you’re using. Choose fertilizers low in nitrogen to prevent getting tomato “trees” that don’t bear fruit. Do not over-fertilize, as that will release excess nutrients which encourages bacteria growth and pests.

5. Foliar Feeding
Occasionally, spray tomato plant leaves with a very mild fertilizer (a much more dilute version of the fertilizer you use for the ground). This improves plant growth and enhances fruit formation.

6. Stake Early
Plant stakes and implement them when tomato plants are young to avoid disrupting root formation later. Note that when staking tomatoes grown in containers, the stakes should be planted on the outside (if possible) where it will be stronger. Here’s a good tomato growing tip for staking- PVC pipes make excellent tomato cages. They’re clean, cheap and easy to setup around a tomato plant. Use linen to bind the branches to the pipes.

7. Harvest Regularly
Harvest tomatoes as soon as they turn red and can be easily snapped off. The sooner ripe fruits are off the plant, the quicker new fruits are formed.

8. Spawning New Plants from Suckers
Here’s a tomato growing tip you probably did not know. Notice those things that grow between the main branches on your tomato plants? They’re called suckers, and they grow to form a new branch or a flower cluster. People who like to prune remove them to encourage fruit production. Once cut off, suckers will develop their own roots if they're put in a glass of water and taken good care of. Place the glass in a dark place and wait a day or two for root formation. Afterwards, take the sucker and plant it in a container and watch it grow. Voila! You have cloned a brand new tomato plant from your existing variety.

9. Boosting Fruit Production when the Season's about to End
When the growing season is almost over or if you live with a short growing season and wish to hasten production, prune off any new suckers on your tomato plants and also cut off their vertical growing tips. This will divert energy into fruit formation and will hasten the ripening of any existing fruits. Growing tomatoes in pots..
growing-tomatoes-in-container

Grow Tomatoes Anywhere in a Pot

Grow Tomatoes Anywhere in a Pot

Since we don’t all have room for a traditional tomato garden either because the yard is too small or for apartment dwellers there is no yard. Growing tomatoes in pots is a great way to have a small garden on the patio or apartment grown tomatoes. FInd a spot with enough space for a pot, and enough sunlight and start growing tomatoes in pots this year.

Here are some tips to growing tomatoes in a pot. First, find a spot that has at least 6 to 8 hours of sunlight a day, more if you can find it. Here are some more things to watch for in container grown tomatoes.

Pick the Right Pot - A standard terra cotta pot with a diameter of 12 inches or more is recommended for tomatoes. You want to make sure your tomato roots have room to grow. Ensure good drainage to avoid root rot, pick a container, with drainage holes in the bottom. You may want to add a layer of rock to keep the holes draining. There are many alternatives to a standard clay pot, barrels are a common choice.

Tomato Varieties - Just as important as the choice of a good pot is the choice of a variety suited to the pot you’ve chosen. The biggest limitation with growing tomatoes in a pot is keeping the plant adequately watered. Choosing a variety that has a lower water demand is key to keeping them strong over the hot dry summer months. Many varieties sold as patio tomatoes are determinate which means they grow to a certain size and then stop, but they only bear over just a few weeks. Similar in size are “dwarf indeterminate” varieties, which have a smaller, stockier growth pattern but will bear for a much longer time. Some good varieties include Patio, Pixie, Tiny Tim, Tumbling Tom and Small Fry. These have the added advantage of not needing as much support or staking.

Soil - A key need os lots of organic matter to help retain moisture in the pot. An alternative is to use a soilless mix of sphagnum peat, perlite, and vermiculite to avoid any concerns with soil borne diseases, and to retain moisture. Plant the tomato plants relatively deep, up to the first set of leaves. This will help develop the strong root system that container grown plants need.

Fertilizing Tomatoes - Tomatoes are heavy feeders, so you will want to mix in a slow acting fertilizer at planting time, and then may want to add a side dressing of fertilizer every 2 to 4 weeks.

Self Watering Planters - Tomato plants typically need at least one inch of water a week, but in a pot they may need more since the pot can get pretty warm in the summer months. If you live in an area that has warm summers you may want to consider a self watering planter like the Earthbox system to reduce the number of times you need to add water.

Growing tomatoes in pots...

How to Grow Organic Tomatoes in a Container

How to Grow Organic Tomatoes in a Container

One of the great joys of summer is eating fresh, ripe, organic homegrown tomatoes, . The quality is comparable to the bland, mealy tomatoes that are usually available in supermarkets. If you don't have space for tomatoes in your garden (or don't have a garden at all) you can still grow tomatoes. As long as you have a sunny balcony, porch, or patio, you can have garden-fresh tomatoes all summer long. There are three keys to success in growing tomatoes in a container: tomato variety, planting, and ongoing care. Pay attention to these three keys, and you'll be in tomato heaven in no time.
Tomato Variety

Anyone who has seen tomatoes growing in a garden knows that they tend to be huge, sprawling plants. They require staking, and caging, and pinching just to stay manageable. So the first thing to do when considering growing tomatoes in a pot is to make sure to find a variety of tomato that will thrive in container culture. While you can grow almost any type of tomato in a container, some are more adaptable (and easier to manage) than others. Generally, this means that you need a compact, bushy (rather than vining) plant, and that it is an indeterminate variety. Indeterminate simply means that it will produce fruit fairly steadily throughout the growing season. Determinate varieties tend to produce all their fruit at the same time. To find out whether a variety is determinate or indeterminate, check the plant tag or catalog description.

Planting

Once you have found the perfect plant, plant it. The first thing to consider here is the vessel you are going to use. In general, plastic or fiberglass pots are best for growing tomatoes. There are two reasons for this. First, plastic and fiberglass, unlike clay pots, don't dry out as quickly. While tomatoes love heat, they definitely don't like being dry, and dry soil is a huge detriment to fruit production. The second reason is purely economic: tomatoes need to be grown in a fairly large pot (eight inches deep is the absolute minimum, twelve or even sixteen would be perfect), and clay gets rather expensive as you start looking for larger sizes. Plastic is inexpensive, even when you are looking for very large pots, and it's unlikely to break the way clay so often does. For a really cheap option (if not the most attractive one) you can plant tomatoes in a five gallon bucket. These are readily available at home improvement stores. They are the perfect size, and the price can't be beat.

Once you have the perfect pot, make sure that there is adequate drainage. The tomato plant will rot if it is sitting in soggy soil all the time. Most purchased pots have drainage holes in the bottom already. For the five-gallon bucket, you will have to use a drill and drill several holes in the bottom. If the pot you are using has large drainage holes, use a piece of broken pot, a piece of window screening, or a paper coffee filter to cover it. This way the water can drain out, but the soil won't end up all over the patio.

Any good quality organic potting soil will work for tomatoes. Just don't use soil dug directly from the garden. It is too heavy for container gardens, and will just compact more as the season goes on. A good peat or compost-based soil, whether purchased or mixed from your own special recipe, is ideal.

When planting the tomato, put some soil in the bottom of the pot, and set the tomato plant in. You'll want to bury the stem (to just below the lowest set of leaves) as well as the roots. New roots will grow along the buried section of stem, making for a healthier plant. Once you have the plant set at the proper level, fill in around it with potting soil, firming lightly as you go. The soil should go up to about an inch below the rim of the pot to allow room for watering. Once it's potted up, give it a good watering and set it in place.
Ongoing Care

Be sure to water regularly. The best way to tell when to water is to stick your finger into the soil. If the first two inches are dry, it's time to water. The trickiest thing about growing tomatoes in a pot is that they are heavy feeders, and every time you water, you are washing nutrients out of the soil. To combat this, you'll need to fertilize regularly, preferably with either fish emulsion or seaweed extract. Once a month is good, but every other week, applying the fertilizer at half-strength, is better. This will provide a constant source of nutrients for the tomato plants.

Two other things to consider are mulching and support. Even more compact tomato varieties benefit from some support. Pre-formed tomato cages, stakes, or homemade cages made to fit the container are all good options. Mulching, while less important in a container than in a garden bed, is still a good idea. It will keep weeds from growing in your tomato pot and retain moisture, so you won't have to water quite as often. The best mulches are pebbles, bark mulch, and straw. If you'd like to use the black or red plastic many tomato growers swear by, simply lay it over the soil before you plant your tomato, cut a slit large enough to put the plant in, and hold it down with metal stakes.

Growing Tomatoes in Pots

Growing tomatoes in a container

Growing tomatoes in a container

Tomatoes are a common favorite garden vegetable/fruit. But we often stop and wonder how in the world can you grow full sized tomato plants in a pot? Yes you need a fairly good-sized pot but his can be obtained very easily. Choosing approximately a 25-30 gallon container made of resin, plastic garbage container, durable plastic or wood should work well. Light colored containers are your best choice because in certain hotter climates the darker the container the more heat it absorbs the more likely it will burn the roots. Metal containers are not recommended either because the container will get too hot for good root growth, thus producing toxins and killing the plant.

Even if you have a good area for growing tomatoes container planting is a sure way of preventing soil-borne fungal diseases. By using a good soil-less potting mix this provides a virtually sterile environment for your tomatoes. Do not add compost to the pot or rocks to the bottom of the pot this might introduce possible diseases.

Preparing Your Pot:

Proper drainage is important to prevent root rot. By drilling holes into the bottom of the container this allows for proper drainage. For pots this size a hole about ¾ inch in diameter is probably sufficient. By covering the holes with screen will prevent the soil from falling out of the bottom of holes this size. It is not a good idea to set the pot directly on the ground, so by raising the pot above ground level this will keep diseases from possibly entering your pot and destroying your tomato plants.

Location:

Set your pot in a sunny area. Tomatoes require approximately 6-8 hours of direct sunlight a day for optimum growth and production. When temperatures are high certain areas of the country it’s also beneficial for the plant if it gets some afternoon shade.

Planting, Care and Feeding:

Once your container is in place fill to within 2 inches of the pot with soil-less soil. Mix a controlled release fertilizer into the top 3 inches of the soil to feed your plants entirely through the summer. Feeding with supplements is recommended for longer growing season in different areas.

A good disease resistant tomato is recommended, for instance: Big Beef or Better Boy. The size of this container will allow you to grow most any full-sized tomato to optimum growth. Each container will house 2 plants with leaves approximately 6-8 leaves each. After planting your tomatoes then set up your cage to support them as they grow.

If tomatoes plants are set out early in the season wrap a layer of plastic around the cage and over the top for protection but leave air holes for ventilation. When watering tomatoes plant top should be dry 3-4 inches below top before watering. And stop watering when you see water drainage coming out of the bottom of the pot. When your tomatoes start fruiting water daily, especially on hot days. When the branches go beyond the cage tuck them inside the cage. Pruning is beneficial in cooler climates for maximum fruit production but in warmer climates it is not necessary to prune because the leaves shade the fruit.

When fall comes be sure and harvest all your tomatoes before the first frost. You can eat them as fried green tomatoes or set them in a box to ripen.
Growing tomatoes in pots...