Have you seen the info-mercials yet? My husband is a gadget guy, like most guys. And he saw the info-mercial for a gadget to grow tomatoes upside-down. (called the topsy-turvy)
After a recent visit to a local guy who sells heirloom tomatoes, I came home with one he gave me, for free, to try, but I knew I didn’t have room for it in my raised bed. Well, hubby says, “can I have it?” Where’re you gonna put it? “I’m gonna plant it upside-down.” HUH?
Yeah, He bought a topsy-turvy! (and he doesn’t garden.)
We have a guy on our local news that does weekly “Deal or Dud” tests on infomercial products. So, you can let us know if the “Topsy Turvy” tomato grower is a deal or a dud.
I’m anxious to hear about it, too. I don’t garden either…but, have been tempted as well! In fact, Ace has it on sale this week for $10.00 and…hmmmm:think:
I work at Bed Bath & Beyond and we carry several As Seen On TV products, the Topsy-Turvy being one of them. I haven’t inspected it too closely yet, but from what I gather it makes it REALLY simple to grow tomatoes…it doesn’t matter if you garden regularly or not at all.
You’ll have to let us know if it actually works. I’ve heard only good things about it so far, though, so that’s probably a plus! I would suspect that, along with being user-friendly, it takes up a lot less space than if you planted a tomato plot in the backyard. If this is the case, I was actually thinking that I would like to get one since we’re short on yard space where we’re currently living.
About 5 years ago DH was talking to a neighbor who had a tomato plant hanging from the bottom of a planter on his porch. He had a bunch of tomatoes on the plant. So DH went and bought a regular plastic hanging planter and got a small tomato plant. He pushed the roots up through the hole in the bottom of the planter and then filled the planter with dirt. He hung it on our back porch were it could get sun and just watered it with a little miracale gro and before long we were eating tomatoes too. Every time I see the ad I think about the plant we had.
I was going to buy one of these for my DH, but the reviews for it on Amazon are pretty unfavorable. Apparently the bag part gets really hot and it needs to be modified, otherwise you wind up having to water multiple times a day!
Many people suggested an approach like cindycactus’s that seemed to much more successful.
At least you didn’t have to pay for it, MoniDew. I hope you have good results!
You can make one with a wooden planter (plastic gets too hot and dries out too fast for me).
Just cut a bigger than normal hole in the bottom, put in a bit of dirt, then the plant, then more dirt. Water regularly. It works great with cherry tomatoes, which delights my DGD.
My husband is a total gadget guy too :teehee: I’m always teasing him about it. My mom bought this for him just last week and it’s sitting on my patio waiting to be planted and hung. Never mind we have acreage and a large garden with tons of tomatoes in the ground already! :shock: I’ve placed the hook to hang it on in a flowerbed, that way all runoff water will at least water the plants below.
you know what he’s doing, right? He’s building a brace to hang up his topsy-turvy.
you can just barely see the little tomato plant sticking out underneath
shhhh…our little secret - he doesn’t know this, but, the rest of the tomato plants are actually in the OTHER bed - the one accross from where he’s hanging up his tomato plant. We’ll humor the dear - after all, he’s my best help when it comes to BUILDING my garden! LOL!
My DH and I joke around about stuff like that all the time. (In a bad announcer voice) “You will get the Topsy Turvy garden, the Enoki Foot pads, and the Package Shark…all for the AMAZING price of only $19.95 (plus shipping and handling)…BUT WAIT! If you order now,we will DOUBLE YOUR ORDER for FREE!!!”
Let us know if it works. And, BTW, your garden looks amazing, Topsy Turvy Tomatoes or not.
Mine too, I was just going to update you guys to let you know this gadget (as expected) sucks mud! :teehee: DH admits it wasn’t a good idea after all. He doesn’t spend much on himself so I really don’t mind the occasional gadget, but I sure didn’t expect the plants to curl upward. eventually the weight of the fruit would undoubtedly straighten it out. I guess!
I thought of this thread today…Earlier in the evening my daughter’s school had a “Bingo and Pizza Night” that I ended up not being able to attend because my son is sick…Daddy went with her and I stayed home with my son…He was a bit upset about staying home because he was really looking forward to going, but, he was in no shape to go…So, I made a big deal about how cool it was we got to stay home and play our own games…We played Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, and Connect Four…In the middle of a game of Chutes and Ladders, my son says to me, “Mama, we need to get a Topsy Turvy.” At first I didn’t remember what a Topsy Turvy was and asked him if that was a toy he saw a commercial for and he said no…All of a sudden it hit me! :teehee: I laughed and said, “you want a Topsy Turvy? That thing you grow tomatoes in?” and he says “yeah!” Then I asked him if he wanted to grow his own tomatoes and he enthusiastically shook his head yes…lol…Needless to say, he LOVES tomatoes…
Indeed! We had a tomato plant last year…I really didn’t think we’d get a single tomato, but, we got quite a few!
My mom and dad had an extra plant they didn’t have room for so they gave it to the kids to plant at our house…They were so excited…I told them they would have to take care of it 'cause well, it’s hard enough for me to take care of the house…lol…I got 2 kids, 6 cats, 2 dogs and a husband, I didn’t want no dang plant to take care of too! :teehee:
Well, they did take care of it…for a while…They watered it every day for like a week then grew tired of it…Despite the neglect, that thing got huge! Unfortunately it was planted too late and none of the tomatoes ripened, but, we did get lots of green tomatoes! My daughter didn’t care too much since she doesn’t like tomatoes, but, my son was ecstatic!
