Finally Good Info For Growing Tomatoes Upside-Down
Tags: Gardening
This is a trendy method of growing tomatoes in containers in which the vine hangs below its container. Advocates say this decreases problems with foliar disease and makes it harder for critters to eat the fruit.
Variety selection is key to success in container plantings, whether the container is hung upside down or not. Indeterminate tomato varieties grow continuously from fruiting and vegetative buds that form in the axil between each leaf and the main stem.
As an indeterminate tomato vine grows large in a container, the roots cannot find enough moisture or nutrients to sustain it. You will find yourself watering a wilted tomato plant two or three times daily in the heat of summer. Because indeterminates are programmed to grow tall, they will reach upward, as you have found, when grown in any kind of hanging basket system.
Choose instead a determinate variety, which will be more compact and have fruits that ripen over a shorter period of time. You still have time to plant for a harvest in early fall. Dwarf varieties are typically used when growing tomatoes in pots. What varieties would do better upside down? Patio, Patio Princess and Bush Steak Hybrid are good choices for standard-size fruits. If you want cherry tomatoes, try Tiny Tim or Tumbling Tom.
Scott Aker, horticulturist at the U.S. National Arboretum.
This is a trendy method of growing tomatoes in containers in which the vine hangs below its container. Advocates say this decreases problems with foliar disease and makes it harder for critters to eat the fruit.
Variety selection is key to success in container plantings, whether the container is hung upside down or not. Indeterminate tomato varieties grow continuously from fruiting and vegetative buds that form in the axil between each leaf and the main stem.
As an indeterminate tomato vine grows large in a container, the roots cannot find enough moisture or nutrients to sustain it. You will find yourself watering a wilted tomato plant two or three times daily in the heat of summer. Because indeterminates are programmed to grow tall, they will reach upward, as you have found, when grown in any kind of hanging basket system.
Choose instead a determinate variety, which will be more compact and have fruits that ripen over a shorter period of time. You still have time to plant for a harvest in early fall. Dwarf varieties are typically used when growing tomatoes in pots. What varieties would do better upside down? Patio, Patio Princess and Bush Steak Hybrid are good choices for standard-size fruits. If you want cherry tomatoes, try Tiny Tim or Tumbling Tom.
Scott Aker, horticulturist at the U.S. National Arboretum.