I love to grow my own tomatoes because my family and I eat a lot of them! I try my best to work in a little lycopene wherever I can in my own dinner and lunch recipes. If you are short on garden space, or just want to add a little greenery somewhere else, try to grow your own upside down tomatoes today. Here are ten of my must-know tips and tricks to grow your own!
Upside Down Tomatoes: How To Grow
It’s pretty simple to grow tomatoes upside down! You just need a large enough hanging planter (you can make one yourself with the tips below!), an already mature tomato plant, and plenty of potting soil. The tomato plants will grow out the bottom hole, while the root system continues to grow upwards, keeping everything in place.
1. Make your own upside-down tomato bucket planters! It’s super easy. When it comes to making your own planter for the job, I like to use things I already have. For example, you know those orange buckets from Home Depot? They actually make terrific planters. To create, drill a decent-sized hole (3-4 inches in diameter) at the bottom of the bucket. Pull the root ball of the tomato plant through the bottom of the bucket, and then fill the bucket with damp soil. Hang from your porch and watch your tomatoes grow!
2. Before putting your tomatoes in an upside down planter, I like to mix my potting soil with 40% peat moss and 60% regular garden soil. The rich mixture provides better nutrients for your tomatoes, helping them put out better fruit.
3. If you don’t want to use an orange 5-gallon bucket for your upside down tomato planters, you can use other things instead! Check out one of the upside down tomato DIY planters ideas here: you can use a soda container, cloth buckets (really, find them at IKEA!), or even an old garbage can! You can reuse anything to make your own upside down tomato DIY planters.
Other Upside Down Tomatoes Tips and Tricks
4. Of course, for any fruit-bearing plant, plenty of sunlight is key. Make sure to hang them in an area that gets at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight every day for totally healthy veggies.
5. When getting your tomato plants ready to plant, make sure you have someone around to help you out. After all, you will need someone to hang it for you!
6. It can be tricky to water your upside down tomato plants because water tends to flow right out the bottom of most of them! I like to set up a self-watering system to help combat this.
7. Make sure you hang your planter in an area that is completely safe and secure. After all, you are hanging up a lot of weight, and it would be devastating if that were to come crashing down. I like to use several S-hooks for my own. Just make sure you test the beam you are hanging them from!
There you have it! Whether you’re into heirloom varieties such as Brandywine, or more modern types, go forth and grow your tomatoes upside down!
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