The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

Make your own upside down tomato planter

15.7 years ago cheap, peppers, tomato

Every time my daughter sees the upside down tomato planter (Topsy Turvy) commercial on TV she asks when we can grow tomatoes upside down.  I am definitely not one to pay $15 to $20 to buy one of these things in the store when I could have the fun of making my own for much less money.

Though this has been commercialized recently, the concept growing plants upside down is not a new one.  Many people have been growing plants like tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets or hanging baskets for decades.  Not having any spare bucket or hanging basket to sacrifice I went with my daughters suggestion and used a 2 liter bottle.

Materials required for you upside down tomato planter

• Empty 2-liter bottle
• Eye bolt with washer
• Duct tape, contact paper, or spray paint
• Drill or hot nail

Step 1 — Create access hole

Make a hole on the side of bottle, this has two purposes: it allows adding soil much easier and also provides an convenient way to water your plant.  I used a 2-inch hole cutter, though you may also carefully cut a hole with a knife.

Step 2 — Add the hanger

By design 2-liter bottles are extra thick in on the bottom immediate center which will make a perfect place to hang it.  I used a drill of the same diameter as the eye bolt.  This allowed me to thread the bolt right into the bottle, which was pretty strong it itself.  Though expecting a great harvest, I also added a bolt to prevent the discovery of my plant on the ground after having a hard fall.

Step 3 — Covering your planter

Roots can be damaged if exposed to light for long periods of time so you need to cover your planter.  You should consider color depending on where you live.  In colder regions a darker color will help keep the soil warm on cool mornings, though in hotter climates a dark color could fry the plant.  I would recommend a medium to light green color for moderate heat absorption and little more aesthetically pleasing in the garden.  Not having any paint I used good ole duct tape.  Wrapping around the entire bottle (even covering the access hole.

I then cut an X through the access hole and bent the corners in to soften the rough edges caused by cutting the hole.

Step 4 — Decorate (optional unless you have kids)

We used permanent markers to personalize both of my daughters upside down tomato planters.

This completes the construction of your upside down tomato planter.  I will admit the first design flaw of this planter is its size.  It will be fine for root growth but it can dry out very quickly.  In response to this water retention was my primary concern when deciding on medium to fill the planters with.

I chose 2 parts (peat moss or coconut coir okay substitutes) , 1 part perlite, and 1 part Groden granulates.  WonderSoil it contains coconut coir which retains water well but also contains water retaining polymers.  The perlite and Groden granulates both provide water retaining properties an allow for proper aeration for easy unrestricted root growth.

To give the plants a good head start I also mixed in a couple of tablespoons of bone meal and tablespoon of balanced organic fertilizer.  Add some water until the mix has the consistency of a wrung out sponge .

Lastly I used my tomato plants from my hydroponic experiment and carefully fed the roots into the now bottom opening of the bottle.  We then added our soil mix until it reached the bottom of the access hole.  Given the plants had a well established root system just the friction and weight of the soil is enough to keep the plant from falling out

Even though the medium retains water well the plants should be watered every day to the point until some water comes out the bottom.  Within 24 hours we can already see the leaves turning over to face the sun.

You can also try other heat loving plants such as peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini.  So if you every wanted to try growing plants upside down with the directions above you can have your own for less than $0.50.

If you want something a little more aesthetically pleasing there is always the commercial option, this one from Gardener’s Supply seems much more sturdy than the ones I have seen on TV:

UPDATE: 05/24/09

It has finally started to get a little warmer at night in my garden so seems like a good time for a little update on the upside down tomato planter.  I wish I could give a direct comparison of the growth of these plants with plants a planted at the same time in the ground though unfortunately we had a light freeze that killed them off.  Interesting enough both plants in the upside down tomato planter survived and even are showing some small blossoms.

Now as part of my pepper planting experiment, I also put a pepper plant in an upside down tomato planter with much less exciting success.  Just to test if my super paranoid water retention worries had any backing I simply filled this one with regular potting mix.  And the plant dried out very quickly which shows in the following results.

Given these results I am going to stick with my 2 parts WonderSoil (peat moss or coconut coir okay substitutes) , 1 part perlite, and 1 part Groden granulates recipe in the future.

Tags: cheap, led, organic vegetables, outdoor plants, pepper plants, tomato plants, upside down tomato planter, vegetables

Cheap fogger hydroponics final results

15.7 years ago aeroponics, cheap, hydroponics, peppers, tomato

In case you missed them here is the original post on the creation of this fogger hydroponic system, and the latest update (before this one).

The plants still are still looking pretty healthy with the exception of a little phosphorus deficiency, but the blame goes on me for that one.  Been a little busy at work and have been neglecting the plants.

I decided to end this experiment since their roots were starting to get tangled and I want to use these plants for another project.

These roots are healthier than they look, some soil leached in when I put some of my pepper plants on top of the hydroponic box.

This pepper plant look really good, haven’t decided what to do with it yet.  Maybe the victim volunteer for the next hydroponic experiment.

Tags: cheap, led, outdoor plants, pepper plants, vegetables

Hardening off plants in the grow box

15.8 years ago computer, computer power control, cucumbers, electronics, indoor growbox, tomato

When you have seedlings growing indoors or a greenhouse during their life they have had the opportunity spending it in a near perfect environment with controlled temperatures, consistent lighting, no wind, etc.  If you take this happy plant and move it directly into the wild (your garden) it can, and probably will, go into shock leading to its sudden death.  The solution to this problem is to hardening off the plant.  This is a process of slowly getting the plant accustomed to the real world environment a couple hours at a time.

You start by bringing the plant outside for two hours in the late evening or early morning hours.  If the plant begins to wilt let it recover indoors until it appears healthy again.  Each day increasing the amount of time it is exposed to the outdoors over 1-2 weeks period, or until the plant can survive a full day/night outside.  At this time it is ready to get its permanent home in your garden.

This process takes a lot of patience, which as they say is a virtue.  Unfortunately I believe I am missing this virtue.  My history of hardening off plants follows a similar pattern; bring out a plant in the evening with the full intentions of bringing it back in after a few hours, unfortunately I forget and it spends its first day out in the cold all night which normally the demise of my summer plants.

This year I am using my grow box to harden off my plants.  Normally the grow box runs at about 68-72 degrees which is a great environment for my seedlings.  By allowing some hot air to vent and lowering the maximum temperature setting in the software I am able to bump the temperature down to a range of 57-65 degrees.  After a few days I will drop the temperature a few degrees until it has similar low temperature to the outdoors, while still staying at a safe temperature for the plants.

Given today using an unknown neighbor’s weather station we had a high of 48.2F and low of 35.1F I still have some time before I can safely bring my tomatoes/cucumbers outside but they should be toughened (hardening) up and ready to go when it is.

Tags: cheap, garden seeds, growbox, led, outdoor plants, tomato plants, vegetables

Time lapse video of cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers in grow box

15.8 years ago cucumbers, indoor growbox, peppers, tomato

As you can see they are starting to take over the even larger box and the camera.

Tags: growbox, pepper plants, tomato plants

Growing with hydroponics in the grow box

15.8 years ago cheap, hydroponics, indoor growbox, tomato

There has been some major changes since I started the plants above in my cheap DIY hydroponic setup about a month ago.  Since then I have added a couple of pepper plants I saved from thinning.  I must say the plants are doing better than I expected.  I am still using the same homemade nutrient solution, 2 pumps of liquid plant fertilizer and half a teaspoon of Epsom Salts. 

The sickly plant on the bottom left is a cloning experiment which is not going great but the plant is growing roots and apparently surviving.

Some views from below:

Tags: cheap, growbox, outdoor plants, pepper plants, vegetables

Free tomato seeds and save a farm

15.8 years ago free, seeds, tomato

If you want to get some free tomato seeds head over to Campbell’s Help Grow Your Soup site.  After simply entering some numbers on the bottom of a can of soup they will send you a free packet of tomato seeds.  Seems like a pretty good deal to me, as an added bonus they donate 100 seeds to the National FFA Organization just for making your request.

Be sure to check out there site because they have some good basic gardening tips on the site.

If you want more sources of cheap/free vegetable seeds check out my Cheap Vegetable Seeds post.

Tags: cheap, garden seeds, tomato plants, vegetables