I made my own for peppers. This is my first time trying this.

I bought 3 gallon paint buckets with lids (and handles) (Home Depot), coffee filters and container soil. To the soil I added bone and blood meals, super phosphate and perlite.

I drilled a hole - maybe 3" across in the lid and the bottom of the bucket. The coffee filter covers the hole in the bottom. The handle hangs from a shepherd's hook. I put a drip emitter in the hole on the bottom - now the top of the get-up.

The drip emitter, although the lowest gph I could find (1/2 gph), seems to be over watering and the dirty water pours down the plant. This may or may not be a problem - we'll see.

The drip line is connected to my tomatoes and other veggies so decreasing the watering time is not possible. I could hand water the peppers in the buckets but I know I'll forget eventually. Another option is to add more water absorbing material to the buckets. I may also exchange the drip emitter for a soaker hose type tubing that could curl inside the bucket. I think they emit less then 1/2 gph. I am hoping, as the peppers grow, the root system will eventually catch more water.

The plants seem happy.

I have in ground plants as well and will compare.

My neighbor gave me one so I planted a Yellow Pear Tomato in in this past weekend. It was a PITA to plant but I did not have the directions so maybe I did something wrong. I planted the tom really deep so just a few leaves are sticking out of the end but it still looks fine..

I one that I am using has a water bucket on the top and a wicking thread that is buried in the potting soil. It is from Gardner's Supply.

I have no idea what to expect so I am not expecting much but hopefully I will get some tomatoes.

Here is a link that might be useful: This is the planter I am using

After watching the Topsy Turvy commercial on tv I decided to order from an online source (much safer and cheaper). I was sold, everything sounded like common sense, roots grow up and the nutrients go down the vine to the plant. No bending to care for the plant. I am using one of those and one planted in the ground. So far I have noticed these differences. The bagged plant wants to grow upwards toward the sun. The new leaves are touching the bottom of the bag and probably will continue to grow up the bag. That's not really a problem except when the tomatoes start to get bigger and heavier it might break the vine. Too early to tell at this point. Also the bag is extremely heavy, with all the dirt and water, it needs a very sturdy support pole or somewhere to hang it that can support at least 20-25 pounds. Birds love this bag. They sit on top of it and...well, you know, all over the leaves. Anyway, I probably won't use the bag next year because of these things. I don't need but 2 or 3 plants so I think the conventional way will work better for me.

I would think that they would be very hard to keep watered in the heat of the summer.

I used them last year and liked them. Actually, last year I had a huge one with three spots on the sides. Came with its own stand and everything. (from qvc, haven't seen them on infomercials) Anyway, except for the fact that I put too many large varieties in it, I am sold. This year I used two slots for tomatoes and one for a pepper plant. I also bought one of the actual upside down varieties and put a cherry in it. You do have to water daily in the dead of summer, but there are benefits such as keeping them up off the ground, etc.

I plant in the ground as well, but enjoy having some closer to the house as well. Try one! :-)

Several previous discussions/reviews on them here in the past couple of weeks but the search engine is down - again - so I can't pull them up for you. If it comes back online in the next day or so you might want to review those discussions too. Just search 'topsy turvey upside down'.

Enjoy your plants.

Dave

IMO, using "site:gardenweb" in Google is better than the GW search. I.e:

{{gwi:1339088}}

Consider the Topsy Turvy a novelty and not a production machine. It IS a PITA to keep watered and what they show you on the infomercial is nothing short of false advertising.

Look at the plants hanging from the TT in the infomercial. ALL THE LEAVES AND STEM TIPS ARE HANGING AND POINTING DOWN. If those plants had been growing upside down in those containers, those leaves and stem tips would be pointing UP!!!!!!

And, when have you ever seen a compact tomato plant with that many fully ripe tomatoes (and no green ones) at the same moment in time???? Even true determinates won't do that.

There have also been a lot of reports about the material they are made of falling into pieces at mid-season.

Buyer Beware. It's a toy. Spend your money like you do for other "entertainment".

If you want to do upside down gardening, use a 3,4, or 5 gallon bucket and keep the lid on between waterings to help with evaporation.

Ted

5 gal pail @ Walmart w/top =$6.00
MG Dirt =$5.00
Packet of seeds =$1.50
Total: =$12.50

Topsy Turvy =$20+

Last year I used what I posted above. I had 2 pail tomatoes with a Super Beefsteak in each, they grew so large and heavy that they busted the handles off. The plants grew a huge amount of tomatoes. This year I've got 7 set up (I'm using a reinforced eye bolt system on the for hanging this year), one is already hung and bringing buds. I like them alot. I DO have a regular garden with a bunch of tomato plants too. But that topsy turvy IS a pathetic thing IMO. A link to a tomato photo which I had last year is here --->

Here is a link that might be useful:

I tried this last year with good results, so doing it on a larger scale, pic
{{gwi:70774}}

Jennyntx, I'm also trying it your way with the hanging baskets.Glad you had good results. I actually saw one hanging in my local nursery,it made up my mind to go ahead and do it. Also bought an upside planter but haven't decided to use it yet.We need to dry out here so I can go play in my soil.

Look at the tips of the tomato vines in the picture above by "Jerryntex". Even after setting fruit, the main vine turned back up toward the sun.

Ted

I have 2 in my patio on a container that someone built for me. I am sorry I don't know how to send 1 pics so take a look. They have not been in too long about a month. The one on the left is an early girl and the right is a BHN 640.

Here is a link that might be useful: my container garden

I find it amazing that despite being in a sunny area, the tomato vine(s) will grow upward. I didn't even think of that!
Well I have the rest of this year to think about it! Thanks for your valuable insight and warnings. I was looking at the Gardener's Supply upside down tomato kit and that thing looked huge! The description says it holds 17 gallons of soil and I can only imagine how big the actual container is!
The DIY approach looks much more practical and economical.
A local radio talk show host I listen to was talking about the TT planters recently, and a caller mentioned that he had one and his biggest problem was keeping birds from building a nest in it. One can only wonder what kind of bird the caller was talking about, given the size of some of those planters.

I just planted a Tumbling Tom in one (I got at KMart).
I stuck a plastic bottle in it too, with a hole & water.
It is trying to grow up.

My favorite is buying the $1.50 mop buckets at Wal-mart and using them to plant maters in. They are 3 gallon and seem like just the right size.

Ok, I confess...

I bought the whole kit from gardeners supply. It comes witha metal support stand and holds 4 bags. (see link at the bottom)

Yes, I know it was expensive but... dare I say it... I HATE staking tomatos! Since I have a small backyard and am trying to grow as much food as possible I appreciate having my raised beds available for other crops. So far I like it. The stand is very sturdy. The bags seem very strong and they claim they are washable and reuseable.

They have a plastic watering tray that sits at the top of the bag and a cloth wick that carries the water from the tray to the tomato. So far the only problem is that the wind can cause the bags to spin injuring the plants. We solved this problem by laying two bamboo garden stakes across the tops of the planter reaching over to the opposite planter making an X in the middle. This limits the amount of movement in the wind.

I had to rethink the varieties I planted. Two are roma and rather than the large beefsteak type I went with a smaller slicing tomato. The fourth plant is the sweet 100 cherry tomato I love. It is indeterminate and is a very vigorous grower so may have been a poor choice. It split at the stem from wind spin but since seems to be doing fine.

So far my only concern is that water sitting in the trays may become a breeding site for mosquitos. My other thought is that Gardeners Supply sells a special soil for use in the planters. Of course they say you should only use their soil (expensive)so I am interested in developing my own mix for the future. The main difference I noticed in using theirs is that it was very "fluffy" and soft. Those of you who have made your own, what soil mix did you use? How are you fertilizing?

I look forward to following this thread over the course of the summer to see how everyone else is doing with their upsidedown tomatos. I know it seems like a fad but if it saves me space, provides for good production and eliminates the chore of staking then I like it. When I figure out how to post pics I will show you what mine look like.

Here is a link that might be useful: tomato hanger

Last year I grew one grape tomato in a 5gal. bucket.
It cascaded abot 4 ft down. I chose grape because I figured larger tomatoes may put too much pull on the roots.
It turned out OK.It was fun but not practical thing to do.
To make it look nicer, I planter a pink cascading petunia on the top that blended well with the tomato, covering the bucket (I chose green color bucket).
So that was enough just to say that: "I have been there, I have done it".

As the plant grows upward, the roots grow down, just as nature intended.