Trades4USD wrote:We tried them and they SUCK!!

When you water them, the water runs through the limited hole at the bottom where at the stem or trunk. This water carries soil with it and the plant's leave get soiled with dirt which starves them and limits their photosynthesis ability.

We tried hosing the plants down each time we watered, but it was a constant battle. Only 1 of 3 plants managed to handle the constant soiling and hosing, but it was pathetic compared to our other tomato plants grown from the ground up.

Fortunately, we returned them for a full refund to Wally's Mart and have never tried them again.

T4USD

You just have to water them slowly a little bit at a time. Mine grow on my rooftop deck and have yet to leave dirt stains, or dirt hanging from them.

DaZoneRanger wrote:For anybody interested, this is "last years design". That's what it says on the one I bought from BigLots for $2.50, and it's the same as this one. The new one they're showing on TV has several holes on the sides to plant multiple plants and it comes with a hanging stand. I actually just planted mine at my dad's house, this past weekend. So, while $4.99 isn't a terrible price, it is the same price you can get them at BigLots for, and you don't have to pay $5 shipping at BigLots. If anybody is interested in the TT pepper planters, they have them at the 99 Cents Only Stores for, of course, only 99 cents. I've seen those at more than on 99 Cents Only location, too, and I did buy a couple of them. I didn't plant that one, yet, though, because Home Depot doesn't have the 4 or 6 packs of seedling peppers. They'll have them soon, though. Right now, they've only got big plants and they're too expensive. Those seedlings are only like $1.99 or $2.99 for 4 or 6 plants. The pepper planter has 7 holes on the sides.

But does it come after a bunch of exciting emails telling you about your sale, then about the shipping, and then, finally, in a big "WOOT!" box?????????!!!!!!!
I think not.

When I tried these, the plant broke off at the base before it made any useable tomatoes.

But good luck. At least they're cheap.

troller11 wrote:I have used these every year for several years. They work "OK". Something like this will never give you the yields that you get in your garden. But these let you use space that is otherwise wasted, like under your eaves in a sunny place. I grow cherry type tomatoes in them and do quite well. You just have to remember to water these EVERY day in hot weather or they will dry out and the roots will cook.

And, you have to water them slowly so that you soak the root ball properly. Otherwise it really does just start running out the bottom.

HughHemington wrote:When I tried these, the plant broke off at the base before it made any useable tomatoes.

But good luck. At least they're cheap.

That's interesting considering there's no weight on them without fruit for the most part...

mmmata wrote:Much better deal from their site

2 tomato
2 strawberry

10 bucks

Didnt see shipping but still...

https://www.topsyturvy.com/?MID=820034&gclid=CLz5s6Kt468CFQZ_hwodBEhpBQ

Theres some tomato in your face woot

The fine print..

When ordering today, you will receive the Topsy Turvy® Tomato Planter and the Topsy Turvy® Strawberry Planter for $10 +$7.95 P&H, plus we will include a second Topsy Turvy® Tomato Planter and the Topsy Turvy® Strawberry Planter for FREE, just pay the additional $7.95 P&H.

*State tax will be added to orders for: CA and NY. 30-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE (minus p&h).
**An additional $10 s&h is added for items sent to Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, US Virgin Islands and Alaska.

Please allow 2-6 weeks for delivery.

I wanted this to be a good product, I really did. But...

1. Pain in the arse to plant. I was terrified of snapping the stem the whole time I was awkwardly holding it between my legs & adding dirt.

2. Super heavy once filled with dirt (and even more so once you add water), impossible for me to hang; had to enlist help from the bf...

3. Doesn't drain properly. It says to add a gallon of water; if I add more than a few CUPS then it runs straight through and out the bottom. My plant is currently dying of thirst.

4. Cheap construction. The metal cable thingy that it hangs from has broken, twice. I have part of the planter hanging with jute.

I bought it off woot in a 2/1 Tuesday deal last year, but only used 1 of them because of the above problems. #2 is in the goodwill box. Sad face that it didn't work

EDIT: I forgot to mention, the plant curved around and is growing ^UP^ ...if it lives, I don't know how I'll reach the tomatoes!

I had one a while ago, it didn't work very well for me, but I don't have a green thumb at all.

The small tomatoes is yielded for me were delicious though.

Greshmahg wrote:Worthless product. Plants by design will attempt to reach up to sunlight. It's just how they work. Attempting to grow them upside down goes against the laws of physics and nature. The plants will actively attempt to grow upwards, because guess what, that's where the light is!

Not only will attempting to grow upside down result in less yield than growing out of a box or the ground, but it also puts the plants in more danger of having their stalks snapped or otherwise damaged, thus killing the plant. These things are less than worthless.

You just couldn't be any more wrong. My neighbor's Topsy planter provides tomatoes for two households every year - works great.

Your post would make more sense if you said something to back up your blanket denunciation of the product. And it's not enough to say that you tried it and it didn't work. Plenty of people manage to make these work quite well.

Greshmahg wrote:Worthless product. Plants by design will attempt to reach up to sunlight. It's just how they work. Attempting to grow them upside down goes against the laws of physics and nature. The plants will actively attempt to grow upwards, because guess what, that's where the light is!

Not only will attempting to grow upside down result in less yield than growing out of a box or the ground, but it also puts the plants in more danger of having their stalks snapped or otherwise damaged, thus killing the plant. These things are less than worthless.

Just love when people give their snotty "I'm so smart" responses and input into things they've never actually owned. I picked up 3 of these for $2 apiece at BIG LOTS and each one gave me at least 6 fully delicious, healthy tomatoes. Sure, $6 for ~20 tomatoes isn't economical, but that's not why people do things like this. It's just plain fun, interesting, and my son loved it! So hit the road with your ill-informed keyboard knowledge thank you.

Who knew container gardening could be so controversial?

Woot still has the better deal so far. :D

I got 4 of these last year, and they work acceptably. They produce very clean tomato plants, no excess vines or messy leaves. They work best with potting soil, regular watering and small tomatoes (cherry or super sweet 100).

ThunderThighs wrote:

OFFER DETAILS:
When ordering today, you will receive the Topsy Turvy® Tomato Planter and the Topsy Turvy® Strawberry Planter for $10 +$7.95 P&H, plus we will include a second Topsy Turvy® Tomato Planter and the Topsy Turvy® Strawberry Planter for FREE, just pay the additional $7.95 P&H.

Please allow 2-6 weeks for delivery.

Lol

Whats funny is their ad getting displayed on woot..hehe is this a tomato inception??

Yeah id prob order from woot given the topsy turvy charge explanation...25 bucks from them..woot beats them when you order 2 or 3...

Anyhow..

I tried these and the strawberry planters. Everything died. Nothing produced anything.

I told this experience to a farmer who lets me use a small part of his land for my garden and he said he's never seen anything grow well out of upside-down plant hangers.

If you buy one of these, all I can say is good luck! I hope it does as well as most other people seem to say they do. My experience was awful and I'll not be using them again.

I have 12 tomato plants in my garden of many different varieties. I will share my bounty with all of you because I will never be able to eat all of my fruit this year. I will love the ones I do eat though.

I agree we tried them for 2 years in a row. Had terrible results.

Plant 'em in the ground

bought these before and just did not work for me. they wouldn't hold the weight, the material was cheap, and they just didn't work better than a standard hanging planter. also, my brother built one out of a 5 gallon bucket and mulch cloth. I still say an ordinary hanging planter works better, but at least that one wasn't one time use.

Meh. Tried them last summer hanging on a fence and then moved to an unheated greenhouse in the maritime northwest. Considerably lower yields than plants in the ground or in 5 gallon pots. Cherry tomatoes did far better than standard ones, but my experience was similar to those above: PITA to plant, very heavy to move once filled with soil and watered, vines got wet from watering and suffered as a result, and indeed they did try to grow up the sides of the thing toward the sun. I still got tomatoes, but I got more from other planting methods. If you have nowhere to set a pot and only somewhere you can hang this (fence, eaves, apartment deck railing), might be worth a shot. Otherwise, try another method for greater odds of success. You can probably spend 20 mins a day dripping water into them so it absorbs evenly...but who is going to do that? They did dry out quickly even in the mild climate West of the Cascades, so beware if you're in a warm place.

Do these work okay with medium to large tomatoes, or just smaller ones (cherry, cocktail, etc.)?

My concern is not whether the plant will grow, but if the tomatoes that do grow taste any good compared to their brethren. Can anyone who has tried these comment as to the taste and solidness/wateriness of the tomatoes?

kashmirton wrote:I wanted this to be a good product, I really did. But...

1. Pain in the arse to plant. I was terrified of snapping the stem the whole time I was awkwardly holding it between my legs & adding dirt.

2. Super heavy once filled with dirt (and even more so once you add water), impossible for me to hang; had to enlist help from the bf...

3. Doesn't drain properly. It says to add a gallon of water; if I add more than a few CUPS then it runs straight through and out the bottom. My plant is currently dying of thirst.

4. Cheap construction. The metal cable thingy that it hangs from has broken, twice. I have part of the planter hanging with jute.

I bought it off woot in a 2/1 Tuesday deal last year, but only used 1 of them because of the above problems. #2 is in the goodwill box. Sad face that it didn't work

EDIT: I forgot to mention, the plant curved around and is growing ^UP^ ...if it lives, I don't know how I'll reach the tomatoes!

Do you still have that BF laying around???? . . .

Ace Hardware has these for just over $2 each. These are ok if you have difficulty grown in dirt (limited space, poor soil, an apartment, pest issues, etc.). If you don't have any of these problems, just grow plants in the dirt.

I use the strawberry one because cut worms and rabbits kept killing my plants. Nice thing is, there are 15 holes in the TT and you can fit two berry roots into each. That's 30 plants in a hanging container.

I'm expecting to open a berry stand ... NOT, but I'm hopeful.

Too bad there are no strawberries offered. You missed out on a sale Woot, perhaps next time.

For those of you suffering bad luck with this. First if you have a black thumb, you have a black thumb. This is not going to fix it.

Some basic container gardening knowledge is key here. I've done suspended upside down gardening successfully using my own creation of planters. Some helpful hints...

1) use potting soil, not black dirt or top soil. Huge difference in moisture retention and mass.

2) the plant has to acclimate to the potting media first. Don't hang it immediately, let it grow to about a foot before inverting.

3) many soils come dehydrated. Mix it with tons of water until it won't absorb any more. Some bulk to 10x their original volume. If you add this without hydrating first, you will never get it to soak up the water and it will run out, soil will run out, your plant will die.

4) pinch off all but the top 2-3 leaves before planting. Place ALL of the stem into the dirt. The stem will grow additional roots, this will stabilize, strengthen and give higher yields. You can do this in your garden too. I plant in a trench manner for tomatoes.

5) if getting too heavy while producing, you can pinch off more leaves. Tomatoes only need enough for light harvesting, it is a lot less than you might think. I pinch back heavily and haven't lost a plant due to that yet. Look online, there are leaves you can pinch off and those you shouldn't.

Happy gardening...just figuring out how many I want...

lstaff wrote:But does it come after a bunch of exciting emails telling you about your sale, then about the shipping, and then, finally, in a big "WOOT!" box?????????!!!!!!!
I think not.

Lately I have been getting Amazon boxes. Alas, I don't even get the joy of excited boxes anymore.

From what does one hang these? And is there a reason, beside sunlight, that these can't be used inside? I'm wondering if I could move herbs inside over the winter and keep them in front of a very sunny window.

I'm on the fence because of the mixed reviews, but the idea of being able to grow tomatoes, herbs, and zucchini - out of both the dogs' range and the neighborhood rabbits' range - without digging holes and/or weeding - is great.

ThunderThighs wrote:

I can't stop watching this thing...

I used these last year, they worked fine. My experience was the same as others. Difficult to put the plants in them. Hang them before you put the water in they get very heavy. You have to water them often. Anytime you grow tomatoes in a container you have to water often though. Last year the weather was terrible in Minnesota for tomatoes. My yield was down on all my plants whether grown in pots or the Topsy-turvy. Tomatoes aren't the easiest things to grow but the taste of homegrown makes it worth it.

xavoc wrote:Have you actually used one? The "thing" about these is that the roots grow towards nutrients. Down is relative, and the plants grow just fine in them. They stay off the ground, so the bugs don't get to them, and sunlight heats the container, which basically encourages the roots to spread rapidly.

They work rather well, and if you don't have a lot of room they're great for getting SOME sort of garden running instead of nothing.

I have, actually, and it didn't work (Seattle Washington, where just about everything will grow). The contained soil didn't hold water in it as well as the ground does, so the bag of dirt was constantly going dry. Ground-based creepy crawlies that help with plant growth couldn't reach them, so that was out. And yes, the stalks tried to turn upwards. My total yield was 4 very small green tomatoes (the green part not such a big deal - sometimes that happens - but the size of the tomatoes was subpar).

The system is scientifically flawed. Fact.

mikelehmann wrote:Your tomatoes will not grow like that, they naturally want to grow toward the sun. Your random, annoying fact for the day....

Sorry son, MATERS will and DO grow very well in these handy dandy doo dads. I've been using them for quite some time. The only thing you gotta watch is, don't over water. Make sure they are WELL HUNG though, they get a bit heavy when loaded with fruit............ Grin

JC

neuropsychosocial wrote:From what does one hang these? And is there a reason, beside sunlight, that these can't be used inside? I'm wondering if I could move herbs inside over the winter and keep them in front of a very sunny window.

Herbs grow great indoors. You don't even need to plant them upside down.
If they don't get much sun, they'll be long a straggly looking. but they taste fine. Herbs like Thyme grown in the shade have soft stems so you don't even have to pick off the leaves.

I bought these when they first came out. They did not work out for me. I did not like to see the water, soil and all the nutrients drain out through the bottom. I prefer to plant tomatoes the old fashion way, the way nature intended. Hell of a price tho.

Boredmaster wrote:Just love when people give their snotty "I'm so smart" responses and input into things they've never actually owned. I picked up 3 of these for $2 apiece at BIG LOTS and each one gave me at least 6 fully delicious, healthy tomatoes. Sure, $6 for ~20 tomatoes isn't economical, but that's not why people do things like this. It's just plain fun, interesting, and my son loved it! So hit the road with your ill-informed keyboard knowledge thank you.

Just love it when snarky know-nothing "know it alls" think they know whether someone else has owned a product or not.

The fact that you only got 6 tomatoes out of yours just goes to show how badly they fail. You're supposed to put 2 vines in this apparatus. You should be yielding at least 2 times that, probably even 3.

Any tadpole who's ever taken a level 1 course in nature studies know that planets ALWAYS reach towards the sun. That's why so many trees that start growing downwards suddenly crook upwards, etc. It's nature.

End of story.

I can tell you from experience that these things won't stand up to an entire summer in the Texas sun. By the time my tomatoes started ripening, the material that made up the sides of the planters had completely faded, turned brittle, and started disintegrating. Just touching the fabric would leave a hole. By mid August, one of them had completely fallen apart, leaving the roots of the plant exposed. The others weren't much better. I wouldn't use these again.

The reviews of this product on Amazon are pretty discouraging, I hope this thing doesn't suck.

jcdchunter wrote:Sorry son, MATERS will and DO grow very well in these handy dandy doo dads. I've been using them for quite some time. The only thing you gotta watch is, don't over water. Make sure they are WELL HUNG though, they get a bit heavy when loaded with fruit............ Grin

JC

Just to clarify, I didn't mean they wouldn't grow at all, just that they aren't going to grow down toward the ground. They want to reach up and touch the sun, much like that Greek god or whatever whose shoes melted... (Did I get my mythology wrong? It wouldn't surprise me.)

Greshmahg wrote:Worthless product. Plants by design will attempt to reach up to sunlight. It's just how they work. Attempting to grow them upside down goes against the laws of physics and nature. The plants will actively attempt to grow upwards, because guess what, that's where the light is!

Not only will attempting to grow upside down result in less yield than growing out of a box or the ground, but it also puts the plants in more danger of having their stalks snapped or otherwise damaged, thus killing the plant. These things are less than worthless.

If you don't stake a tomato plant it stays on the ground,it does not stand straight up pointing at the sun! If that were the case we would plant pumpkin trees and not vines. Yes a plant "reaches" toward the strongest light but no reason why a tomato plant won't grow upside down.Not saying this is the best way to plant a tomato but I'm sure it would work. Keep in mind this is kind of a novelty item and may be fun to try out a few.