I'd be interested in hearing more about this, too. I was looking at my bush cucumbers, which are growing in pots, and wondering if they could grow upside down.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

I am wondering why one would want to?

calliope, some might want it to hang from a patio rafter if they have very little garden space. Some just like the visuals of a hanging plant. It might be easier for some people to reach up to harvest than to bend down and search for it. I'd like to be able to move mine to my neighbor's when I move from south to north (or north to south) and must leave my garden.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

I, too, set out to research this subject and studied up on it for awhile. What I'm not wondering is if you could grow vegetables in hanging containers (not upside down) and let the vines and fruit grow naturally downward. I think I will just have to do a test as I cannot find any good info on this.

~Angela

Here is a reason why to do tomatoes. I haven't heard of anyone doing it with other veggies. Right side up hanging pots would certainly work for things like cucumbers, I'd think.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Tomatoes Upside-Down

I meant to say, "What I'm now wondering" rather than "not wondering". Duh!! LOL

Thanks for the feedback, Granny. I also wonder if tomatoes would grow better right side up, just in hanging containers, too. I read about people doing plantings side by side, one in an upside down planter and one in a regular container on the ground with a trellis. From what I could tell, the tomatoes that were upside down didn't do as well as the others, but still did well. Since this was not the exact test I want to do, then I will probably have to do both hanging containers myself, one upside down and one right side up.

~Angela

I have been too curious about growing different things upside down, so I started searching some more. Apparently, an organization did some kind of official testing of this subject to see if and how different kinds of plants do grown upside down. The link is below. I only understood part of the results, though. LOL One thing I gathered from it clearly, though, is that it appears that it certainly can be done to grow many different kinds of veggies upside down. :-)

~Angela

Here is a link that might be useful: Upside Down Veggies Test

My father tried the upside down tomato and was not happy with the results.....little fruit, hard to keep watered properly, etc.
Let us know how you make out if you try it.

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: {{gwi:103472}}

These are my tomatoes at the end of July. They will bend over and grow down another 4 or 5 ft. before the end of the season. I would have to hang the bucket about 15ft above the ground and use a ladder to pick the first tomatoes.

John

{{gwi:103474}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Johns Journal

I understand the concepts of growing vegetables in hanging pots/baskets. They have the same benefits as those on the upside down site, IOW away from critters and good air flow, but why plant upside down? That's the part I don't see. Still don't.

calliope, now, this is just guessing, because I've never done it, but if you hung a pot of tomatoes from a rafter and it grew UP to its normal size, you would need a ladder to pick the fruits, plus the vines would get so heavy they would fall over and break. If it were upside down, with the fruits hanging down, you could reach out and pick them, and the vines would just hang free with no added stress to break them. I wanted to plant a cucumber this way just to see what happens.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Well, I'm curious enough to try it, I guess. I have planted them in hanging baskets, but used the varieties suggested for such, like Tumbling Tom. They drape down, and the fruits are small. I'll have a g'house cranking until Christmas, so it would be a good time to try this method. Thanks.