Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter makes the mainstream media

I have to admit that the upside down tomato ad at Amazon has always left me puzzled. What is the point? Why bother? To someone who has always enjoyed digging in the dirt it seemed like a silly gimmick, and I wondered who could be buying this product.

Now I discover an article in the NYTimes touting upside down growing as the latest rage in gardening. The article lists several advantages of upside-down gardening. One is that it saves space. The plant is contained in a 5 gallon bucket and is in the air, not taking up room in the yard, so it's good for apartment balconies and small yards. You don't have to buy or make tomato cages or stake them. This is a real selling point because the cages are a pain often bending as you try to put them in the ground and making the clean up of the garden more labor intensive. It eliminates some pest problems. Cutworms are mentioned and that makes sense are they live in the ground and can gnaw a small tomato seedling right through. There are no weeds to speak of. The water and nutrients like manure tea goes straight to the roots and gravity does the work of distributing the food and water. The article also claims there is greater air circulation and sunlight exposure.

Well, what can I say? Maybe it works well if you don't have space. I am not about to start upside down gardening with my twenty tomato plants but I guess I will not scoff so much at the Topsy Turvy Tomato planter. I'm still not clear on why the plant does not try to right itself. My experience with plants tells me they know where "up" is and try to go there. Some gardeners in the article were going to grow both in the ground and in the air plantings and see which did better. That should be interesting. So for those of you with limited space or a knack for the new, upside down planting seems to be a growing phenomenon.

Here is a link to the NYTimes article: At NYTimes/a>

At Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter

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