Topsy Turvy- anyone?
 

I am giving strong consideration to the purchase of the tomato and the pepper Topsy Turvy plants… anyone here have any experience with them… feedback?

Yes... them's the ones...

For years my Mom would grow tomato plants in hanging pots around the edge of the carport. Not quite the same thing, but the same effect in that the vines would grow over the edge and trail down. It worked quite well, kept them away from most critters, and off the ground. You can't forget to water, though, because there's no reserve. I think you should be the Cellar's official tester. :D

LOl... I think I will be... We have a puppy now and well... a 2 and a 3 year old who are pron to picking... so I was thinking these might be a nice solution. We have good sun. Watering is a challange for me... my lucky bamboo has not been so lucky

Oh yes! I didn't think of the kid thing, excellent point. :thumb:

Our houseplants' survival rate improved when beest got into the habit of emptying any unfinished glasses/bottles/sports bottles of water onto plants rather than down the sink.

They were not successful at all for the one person I know who used it. Consider the sample size tho.

Sounds like a gimmick to me.

I bought a Topsy-Turvy last year; they are ridiculously simple in design, you can achieve it with a much elegant container or even a fashionable shopping bag. In essence, it is just a sturdy plastic bag with a hole on the bottom and some wires to hoist it with.

There really is no complex engineering to it, other than making it possible to move your plants inside your home. I bought three very healthy tomato plants, all the same kind: one went in the Topsy, one in a big flowerpot, one in the yard.

Topsy-Tomato did great at first, grew fast and bugs didn't bother it. But it dried up incredibly fast and required ludicrous amounts of watering. After a few months the quality of the soil was compromised since the container isn't really that big, so the growing became weak and halted at about 3 or 4 months.

Flowerpot-Tomato outlived the other two plants. It grew pretty big and we built a wire support for it. The tomatoes are a little small but a good color. I intended it to be in a flowerpot so I could move it inside and outside, but it is too heavy to do it with ease. However it seems rather content by the big window for now.

Yard-Tomato grew the biggest and best tomatoes out of the three plants. I planted cempazuchitl around it to keep the bugs off but it didn't scare the bunnies off. They all but raped the poor plant.

I would say, from my humble and far from scientific experience, the Topsy-Turvy wasn't worth the $20 I paid for it. It is a bag. A bag with a hole. Someone out there is laughing really hard at all of us.