Curiosity always seems to be the first driver in deciding if any NEW "marketing gimmick" is up to personal standards (TopsyTurvey Online Marketing Video). The convenience of planting fresh veggies from any location that you could simply pick off the vine and immediately drop into recipes is quite alluring. That's what advertisements will tell you. Vine ripe! Succulent! Perfect every time!
I hope it goes without saying that growing plants is never a "perfect every time" scenario. Too many factors involved. But this blog isn't about vegetable agriculture; it is simply a personal account of using an alternate method for growing vegetables.
I do not live in a confined space. In fact, I have a 120 foot square garden behind my house that I always plant each year. Tomatoes, green peppers, beans, potatoes, cabbage and cucumbers. Understanding mother nature and personal labor to manage the garden is almost a right of passage which often leads to feelings of great success and questions about how to make it all better the next year. Sound familiar?
So, what I thought I'd do is experiment. Could a TopsyTurvey tomato (I also Turveyed cucumbers and green peppers) stand up to the production of an in-ground Garden?
This is what this Blog is about...
Where to Hang the TopsyTurvey
I am assuming from the way the marketing of the planter is presented that the TopsyTurvey is targeted to those that don't have gardening space appropriate for planting tomatoes (or any vegetable). Apartment balconies can now been decorated with beautiful bounties of red, ripe, editable blossoms. Cool! I used to live in such confined spaces and would have loved to have slid open the balcony door, walk a couple of steps, and pluck the night's salad ingredients from my tenth story porch. All you have to do is stuff the Topsy with plant and soil, find a place to anchor the Topsy that will support the weight of the produce, and sit back while nature, hanging high above the asphalt, does its thing.
I have a large outdoor back porch and could have easily anchored my plant(s) to the wood ceiling of this porch. However, I didn't want the growth to block my vision of the yard. Besides, I had the opportunity, having a home with a yard, to hang them from several locations. I chose the clothes line.
Yes. You heard me right. Watching the promo video and how all the plants shown in the video always seemed to grow perfectly downward made me curious. The directions for the Topsy planting, depending on the source of the instructions you read (http://www.etopsyturvy.com/downloads/instructions/TopsyTurvyInstructions2008.pdf) (http://www.ehow.com/how_4998450_plant-topsy-turvy-tomato.html) never really provides how HIGH you should hang the planter. This is an important consideration. Hang it too high and you can't water it without a step stool. Too low and the tomatoes will be lolling across the floor/ground. The fact is that, in my experience, the tomatoes do not grow down in one Easy, Bushy, Just Pick'em and Go configuration. Plants like sun and they will always grow toward sunlight. In other words, the plants turn up, as they grow down and you'll find that the video of the Topsy is inaccurate at best. One hanging clump of beautiful tomatoes is not what I got. What I got is a need to care for the plants that went well beyond hanging considerations. Which was expected. And, therefore, was the reason I chose the clothes line: It was low enough to hang so that I could water the planters (which must be done every day since there is no source of groundwater for the plants) and provided what I thought would be necessary as the plants grew. I had a way to tie up the plant vines along the clothes line.
Time Lapse
Following is a set of pictures that I took during the growing cycle. I have the classic T-shaped clothes line poles (2) and the clothes lines (2) that run between them. The point of attachment for the clothes lines to the poles provided an anchor point for four Topsys. I planted two tomato planters (2 plants were in each planter), one pickling cucumber (2 plants in this planter too) and one green and red pepper mix (2 plants) in the fourth planter.
- All plants were hung on May 28, 2009. Each was no more than a foot tall.
- June 16
- After just a couple of weeks you can see that the plants are curling toward the sun. Tomato plants are in the first pic, cucumbers and peppers are the second pic. I managed them with a daily watering and a shot (once a week) of Scotts® Miracle-Gro® Tomato Plant Food
- June 28
- Growing upward. None of the plants are going to be comfortably bunched below the planter as seen on TV. They will grow down and "up" and the vines will constantly search for some kind of support. That's where the clothes line pole and clothes line come into play.
- July 5
- More than a month in, the plants were taking off! Very healthy! But they were growing so large that my concern was for their stalks...which, of course, was one of the reasons I chose the clothes line as a growth point. These vegetable stalks are strong but they would not sustain produce growth weight or the more problematic: mother nature (meaning with and rain and such). So tying them up was a necessity.
- July 12:
- The tomato plants required the most attention. As the fruit grew and the vines were weighted, tying them along the clothes line was easy, if not totally different from the common stake-in-ground routine. I had the vision at this point that I could walk among the "lines" which were about face-high, and pluck the fruit of my labors easily.
- The peppers were actually the most robust of the group. Strong vines that produced vigorously. Unfortunately, I didn't give them the love that I should have as far as tying up is concerned. One big storm at the end of July broke off one of the plant vines. I woke up the next day with a stalk of 6-month grown half-mature peppers lying on the ground. They went into salads and stews but still...
- The cucumbers had a mind of their own, of course. They naturally groped for the pole and any supporting tie-ups that I gave them. Quite frankly, cucumbers were the easiest to grow in the Topsy. I had cucumber salad every other night during peak harvest (late July thru August).
- July 18
- Tomato Plants are awesome! Healthy veggies! Growing like wildfire. Cucs and peppers are producing very well.
- July 27
- Production was all that I would have hoped it would be. In the next couple of weeks, my family (of two) was able to eat vine-ripe produce by simply picking from the clothes line what was wanted for dinner.
- August 2
- This is the height of the plants growth. Except for the peppers, which were stodgy in the way they grew, my clothes line was crowded with vegetables, particularly the tomatoes.
Conclusion
Are you considering the TopsyTurvy? Perhaps it provides you with a way to grow veggies in an environment where "gardens" are not the option. My Blog (experience) is one that provides choices. The veggies I harvested from the Topsy planting were absolutely tasty and provided a couple of months worth of fine dining :) . I did not think that just slapping an inverted planter on my back porch was going to grow me the best produce since WholeFoods. I did want to experiment. And I can say that, given the proper LOVE, you too can grow salad ingredients using the Topsy. But, as always, buyer beware (understand).
