Hi Brismith70: To do a statistically valid experiment comparing these systems, you would need to do alot more than what I'm doing currently. Specifically, you would want to plant in several different hardiness zones to eliminate climate as a factor and you would want to plant at least 50 plants in each type of container in each location to eliminate random noise such the influence of pests or having some tomato plants inherently less healthy than others etc. That kind of test would be scientifically valid and impossible to dispute, but it's beyond my capability as a backyard gardener. That said, the comparison I'm doing (1 plant in each of 4 containers) is useful; it will allow me to provide advice to fellow gardeners on the pros and cons of each system. For example, I can already tell you that I think an issue with the topsy turvy is that it's so heavy that you will be limited in where it can be placed. I don't need to hang it 500 times to know this. Likewise, if all the containers produce about the same amount of fruit, or one produces almost none, I can make reasonable conclusions about the likelihood to produce fruit for other gardeners, even if this opinion is not one that would not measure up to the rigors of what a agricultural scientist would require as proof. However, I did make every effort to eliminate differences that would bias the results such as planting the same type of tomato plant in each container and putting all of them in the same general location so that they get the same amount of sunlight etc. Hope that helps.

Last year I grew 5 tomato plants in soil and 5 in home-made earthboxes and wanted to see if one method was better than the other. I had three pairs (one in soil and one in container): Brandy Boy, Odoriko, and Striped Roman; Opalka and German Gold in containers only; and Sun Gold (two in soil). The containers were made from 16 gallon totes, and I'd estimate they held a bit less than 12 gallons of soil. I recorded plant height (for the first 8 weeks or so), when the first blooms appeared, when fruit set (until there were too many to count), and number and weight of tomatoes harvested. Results: 1. The container plants grew slightly faster, produced blooms and set fruit 5-7 days earlier than those in soil. I attribute this to 3-5 degree warmer soil temperatures (yes, measured that, too). 2. There was no clear winner in terms of total harvest. Most plants that didn't have major disease problems produced >15 pounds of tomatoes, not counting green ones picked at the very end. 3. The containers were plenty big enough. When I examined the roots at the end of the season, they were not pot bound at all. The plants probably would have done just as well in a slighly smaller container as long as it had roughly the same height. 4. The container tomatoes tasted just as good. That's my 2 cents.

"A plant drinks 6-7 litters of water a day now" No, there is no way that plant needs more than 3 liters per day. If you've measured properly (and it is not draining out, I interpret my comment about overheating the soil as being the *principal* problem. Fix that! When the leaves get to that stage I pinch them off. I don't know whether the curl is from heat and dying alone, or if there is something else there, but it look not bad so far. The only reason to keep a leaf like that is if it is shading a fruit and keeping the sun off. Otherwise keeping it on the plant will only increase the chances a weakened plant will get an out of control disease, IMO, because they are are good media for breeding of pathogens. The plant has already withdrawn nutrients from it which as seysonn mentioned may not be optimally delivered. The damage doesn't look too bad (diseased) to me, could be prompted from insects and the plant naturally removing nutrients from it to give to nerw growth. Nothing wrong with pinching off leaves from the bottom as the plant gets taller and puts out more in the zones where the new fruits are developing. While the above ground plant can tolerate those high temperatures,the roots are in overdrive and very uncomfortable. This will just weaken your plant.

There are many discussions of this question over on the Growing Tomatoes forum here and the search tool will pull up many more from the Container Gardening forum and several other local forums. Container Gardening has good discussions on what to fill them with. As a very general recommendation 5 gallons is the very bare minimum recommended and then only for the smaller varieties, the dwarf and compact determinate varieties. And even then there are problems keeping them fed and watered well enough to produce well. So as Zesty said above, the bigger the better when it comes to containers. Personally I use a few 10 gallon ones (have 6 of them for determinate tomatoes), several 15 gallon (have 12 of them for normal indeterminate tomatoes), and for the really big plants like Sun Gold and others 25 gallon (50 gallon drums cut in half). Dave