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stompoutbermuda

Topsy Turvy does NOT work here

stompoutbermuda
14 years ago

In June I planted a tomato plant in one of those topsy turvys (brand new, fresh out of the box). My tom has struggled all summer and although it currently has flowers they dont set fruit and the stems are only a little over a foot long. It was in a spot that only got direct early morning sun. I just noticed today that the side that faces the sun has an 8" tear in it where it has been deteriating the plastic. I have a friend on the coast who planted her new topsy turvy with a tom in June and she has 14 toms on it.

Comments (2)

  • fabaceae_native
    14 years ago

    Thanks for the info. Now I'm glad that I never bought one of those things. I'm in a high-elevation arid area, where whimpy plastics don't stand a chance in the sun either.

    More and more I'm noticing just how much better everything does in the ground versus in any kind of planter. My garden bed tomato plants are enormous bushes right now (4 ft high and spreading 6-8 feet wide), and have been setting fruit like crazy since early August. These are plants I started myself from seed back in April and transplanted in May. They would not be anything like this if they had been in a pot this whole time. I guess for some a planter is the only option, but at least go for large and sturdy instead of a gimick.

  • stompoutbermuda
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    I have heard of people planting nastursiums in the top waterhole part and I may try an experiment next year because I still have one more topsy turvy in the box. I am wondering if I planted a trailing dense plant in the top part (and did it early enough in the season) if it would shade the topsy turvy enough? But I do agree about the plastics, recently my mom and I went through tons of plastic pots and threw them away because the desert is not good with them, some of them just desintigrated right in our hands. I am wondering about styrofoam planters and redwood planters though. I have several pots and some of them are highly decorative and I really like to use them. Someone tips on here I have read said to

    1)keep the pots shaded so the roots dont cook
    2)someone else said to use diapers for insulation
    3)double pot with either popcorn styrofoam or air surrounding the inner pot (I want to try this with some of my pots that dont have holes and just put water in the outside pot to raise the humidity)
    4)change the color of the pots, in the summer use light colored and use dark in the winter. This can be accomplished by using the same pot; for instance -if it is a dark pot in the summer cover the outside with light colored paper or stack light colored rocks around the outside of the pot. In the winter the dark colored pot can be left more exposed.

    I am leaning more towards putting everything in the ground except for some special plants I have that need to be brought indoors part of the year. I baked several of my plant's roots this summer not knowing about the heat on the roots, I have read the temps inside a pot can get up to 140 degrees HOT HOT HOT!!!!

    It's good to know about your Tom plant!! I guess it's probably too late for me this year, but next year I will be planting some in the ground as insurance!! This year it looks like I wont have any homegrown toms of my own :(

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