I think determinate varieties of tomatoes grow quite well upside down, with most of the failures coming from growing indeterminate varieties. Here's a photo from a guy who tried both ways, and what he had to say about it. "I'm following your upside-down planter project with great interest & thought you may be interested in my experiment. My regular garden tomato row soil has become so plagued with disease (wilt & blight) that this is the last year for quite awhile that I'll plant there. I figured that I'd try some hanging plants to see how they'd do, my trials with pots have failed miserably. I got one Topsy Turvy planter & planted a Goliath in it May 6th & at the same time planted a Big Beef in a bag of topsoil just to see what it would do. The Big Beef grew so well, I decided to find a way to hang it where there was full sun all day. I just bought a cheap landing net, drilled a hole in the handle & hung it on a clothesline pole. This plant is now far & away my biggest, healthiest plant (in-ground or hanging). The upside-down plant is also doing well (both have 4 tomatoes on) but the stem on the bagged plant is much thicker & the plant seems much more robust. I don't know if this is due to the plant being more vigorous growing up toward the sun versus growing down (with the help of gravity!) in the Topsy Turvy but I'm leaning toward planting most of my plants that way next season. I also experimented with planting mediums - there's sphagnum moss only in the upside-down planter & a mix of moss & potting soil in the middle bag (a mature Husky Red that I just planted last weekend, it matures in 65 days so it should do well this late). There's no disease on any of them, while the in-ground plants are starting to yellow already. Didn't mean to take up your time but I thought I'd share my project results so far, I'll keep tabs on your updates. If you'd like I can send you pics later in the season when "the jury is in" on which ones do the best. Thanks for your time & good luck - we all need a bit of that growing tomatoes!" -Steve in Central Indiana" Granny Here is a link that might be useful:

Very creative, love your characters on the fence also!The cherry tomato idea looks interesting. I just stuck my bell pepper in the ground-bought 1 plant & put it in a small mesh chickenwire basket thing so gopher doesn't come & eat it up. Next day found big pile of dirt in middle of my onions so "they are back". I put sticks & rocks all around plants & chickenwire over peas so crows don't eat tops off. Too many critters,now I know why FG had a completely enclosed garden even chickenwire over the top like a big 20x15 room & you had to open the door to go in. Only way to get perfect produce around here without using chemicals & traps,ugh.When tomatoes & strawberries get fruits I cover the plants with net like can-cans were made of. Birds don't get them. Like your ideas, might be able to get some to work for my yard. TFS Jan

Hello grenthum, The first one is Zucchini, them an heirloom tomato and lastly a cuke. The cuke did very well with large fruit. If you are considering a cuke, I would suggest simply planting in a bucket and let it drape over the side. Why waste a good bucket by having to put a hole in the bottom?! IF you do want to slaughter that bucket then simply drill a hole in the bottom and do one of two things.... One is to place a seedling in the hole from inside the bucket and then fill with soil OR second way is to fill bucket with soil, put cover on bucket and flip over meaning onto the cover with the hole in the bottom of the bucket pointing up. Then start your cuke seeds in the hole. When they are a good size OR you cant stand it anymore, simply hang em up. They work, but more interesting to watch than productive. have fun, Tony

Damon: I think it's environment. I don't think it's disease. I had almost the exact same one last year. I just watch it do nothing but stay that way for weeks. If only it would have just die so I know to pull it. This year I am more diligent. If it was me, I would take a picture of it now. Then a week later take another picture and compare them. If they uncurling doesn't stop, I would pull it. That's just my noobie opinion.