Upside-down Tomato Update: ysabetwordsmith

Upside-down Tomato Update

So far, my upside-down tomatoes are all surviving. Some are doing better than others, though. Plant size makes a big difference in this project:

The smallest tomatoes (Romas and Yellow Pears) are doing the best. They were 2-4" when transplanted. They are now curled upwards around the milk jug spouts, jaunty little green hook shapes. Eventually the plants' weight will pull them downwards.

The medium-sized Black Prince is doing well. It was about 6-8" when transplanted. It is curving upwards but not as strongly.

The largest one is ... still alive. This is the Sweet 100 Cherry Tomato. It was about a foot tall when I got it, and the weather sucked that week, so by the time it was planted it was about 18" tall. That is too big for an upside-down tomato. Some of its leaves have died. It is trying to curve up but not succeeding very well.

So for anyone planning to experiment with upside-down tomatoes, make sure you get tiny plants. They should be just big enough to survive transplanting and have a good root ball. I think anything under 1" would be too small, and optimum is probably 2-4" as I found with the Romas and Yellow Pears.

dianavilliers

May 11 2009, 21:45:50 UTC 12 years ago

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Did I miss an initial post about how to turn tomatos upside down and why one would want to?

Over here...

ysabetwordsmith

May 11 2009, 21:57:22 UTC 12 years ago

... in

cheap_cookin is the original post:
http://community.livejournal.com/cheap_cookin/54334.html

Sorry, I must have forgotten to include it here too.

Re: Over here...

May 12 2009, 00:58:27 UTC 12 years ago

Thanks, that solves that confusion. My tomatos (planted in large pots) didn't do so well this year - they caught a fungus of some sort and died, too late in the season to replace.

How often do you need to water them? Tomatos are thirsty, especially when fruiting, and a gallon container isn't that big.