The Pros and Cons of the Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter

I have only just begun my gardening experience and I am definitely an armature at it. I am currently growing radishes, carrots, sweet onion, green onion, pole beans, cucumber, sweet pepper, spinach, and tomatoes. I have a garden bed for the radishes, carrots, sweet and green onions, pole beans, and cucumbers. I have planted both the spinach and the sweet peppers in large flower pots. They are all growing great. Last year I decided to try out the tomatoes in the new topsy turvy.

I found that at first the plant was doing great. It seemed to thrive faster and better than my other vegetables. I even had several blooms. I did exactly what the instructions said on the box of how to water and plant the tomato plant. I thought it was going to just be another wonderful invention. However, I had thought wrong.

I do not know if it was the heat or maybe along the way I did something wrong, but the plant is dead. It shriveled up like an old person after living a hundred years. I never thought that plants could mean so much to me. All that hard work of making sure it was happy and had all that it needed; it seemed to all be taken from me. I actually thought I was going to cry when I watch it die and it seemed that there was nothing I could do that could fix it.

I thought then this year I could try again with the Topsy Turvy. Maybe it was the heat or maybe it did not get enough water. So I went through the process of planting the tomato in the Topsy Turvy again and I followed the instructions again. I decided to put it somewhere I thought It would be cooler. It seemed to like where I had it. It grew like a weed. It followed the same growth pattern as the last tomato plant I had did. I was excited I thought maybe it would work. I would check the soil twice a day depending on how hot it was sometimes I would check three times. I tried my hardest to get it to work. Then again I woke up one morning and saw that it was looking sick like the last tomato plant had done. In the end no matter what I did to try and save it, it had died. Now I was very frustrated. I inspected the dead plant and noticed something.

I noticed two things in the second tomato plant that I had on the first one. I noticed that both of them were black at the base of the plant where it met the entrance of the Topsy Turvy. It seemed that the trunk of the tomato plant was rotted out. I also noticed that several of the branches seemed to be snapped in half. I found this very intriguing and began to come up with my own conclusions.

I analyzed everything and came up with some ideas of what could have gone wrong and I am going to try and do things different when the next planting season comes. I figured that it could have been the combination of the dry heat, the weight of the plant, and the base of the plant rotting due to all the water setting right there. I think that the idea of the Topsy Turvy has many pros however, I think it has its also has cons. For instance being upside down all the water will percolate downward. Therefore the water will set towards the bottom. The water setting there could lead to rotting of the plant and thus killing the plant. I also noticed that after a certain point the plant gets heavy so if I was to try this again I would make sure I try to find a way to support the branches of the tomato plant. I also think that may be it being so hot and dry here that it did not do the tomato plants any justice. Unfortunately, there is nothing for me to do about the dry heat seeing as I live in Southern Nevada and it is always like this.

I do not know if or when I will try the Topsy Turvy again but if I do I will try to make some minor adjustments to it in hopes it will lengthen the tomato plants lives. I would at least like to get just one tomato out of the plant.