Collegiate Times

The Topsy Turvy tomato planter used in Ceritano's storefront

Tomato growers are turning their plant’s world upside down this summer.

Gardeners are using an alternative growing system for their tomato plants to save money and space in the garden by hanging them upside down.

Tomato plants require a large amount of ground space, with a recommended two feet distance between each plant. The vines also need a type of support to cling to, which should to be sturdy enough to hold the heavy fruit.

Some growers, however, are abandoning this system and letting the vines hang down, roots up.

Nino Ceritano, owner of Ceritano’s Ristorante, is growing his tomatoes from the sky down in his storefront.

“It’s our first year growing them upside down,” he said. “We started in February with the seeds, growing them at my house, and then moved them here.”

The plants small yellow flowers are blooming, and the tomatoes will be out in a few days, he added. The tomatoes he planted are like Romas but much bigger, and will be used in the restaurant when they are harvested later this summer.

Ceritano’s tomato plants are growing in Topsy Turvy tomato planters. According to the Topsy Turvy website, this style of growing does not require the hard labor of tending to a ground grown plant and reduces ground fungus.

Hanging plants in the air also saves space in the garden, said Phillip Hanbury, manager of Blacksburg Feed and Seed Inc.

Hanbury said the benefit of growing tomatoes upside down is that less work is needed for them to thrive. When tomatoes grow from the ground up, the vines need support such as a stake or wire and require weeding.

He said the downside of growing tomatoes this way is buying the product to plant them in, however it can be re-used year after year.

Since this is no new phenomenon, gardeners are beginning to create their own planters instead of buying the Topsy Turvy.

Hanbury said the Feed and Seed used to sell the Topsy Turvy tomato planters when they first came out, and they were really popular. However, very few people have asked about them this year. This may be because gardeners are making their own upside down tomato planter out of five-gallon buckets.

“Anybody can do them, and they’re basically the same thing,” Hanbury said. “All you have to do is cut holes in the bottom.”

The do-it-yourself bucket’s open top can also be used to grow smaller plants.

“Marigold doesn’t have a very big root system, so they could go on top,” Hanbury said.

Henry Wakley, local gardener and tomato grower, is using the bucket system to grow his plants.

“I heard about it by word-of-mouth and wanted to experiment,” he said.

Wakley said it is more economical to use the buckets instead of the Topsy Turvy, because he obtained the buckets for free and started from seeds, which is cheaper. He is cutting the holes in the buckets in a particular way to prevent soil from running out of the bottom.

“We have to cut a star in the bottom or a two-inch hole,” he said. “You can do either.”

Wakley said the buckets need to be hung at least six feet from the ground, because the plants grow anywhere from three to four feet long.

“The point is not to have the tomatoes lying on the ground where they can rot,” he said. “We’re hanging our buckets under the side deck on the south side of the house, and we will spin them every other day for full sunlight.”

Wakley said tomatoes are full sun plants, and the buckets also need to be hung from something strong to hold all of the weight.

“The buckets can way more than 50 pounds with the soil and plant,” he said.  “It’s important to have soil that drains well and isn’t too heavy.”

Though Wakley is using the bucket system to just experiment, he said this way of tomato growing is good for city gardeners who do not have land to grow tomatoes on.

He said that all you need is a deck or porch, and it could also be used to plant peppers.

A version of this article appeared in the May 24 issue of the Collegiate Times.