Felknor Ventures 82506 Topsy Turvy Upside-Down Tomato Planter

I am not sure why others appear to be having trouble. I have never been able to grow plants before. I guess I usually overwater my plants, so these are great because the extra water just drains away. I looked for tips online, and gave it a shot. One topsy turvy, one bag of miracle grow pre-mixed potting soil, and one small tomato plant. I had more tomatoes than I could eat last summer, and gave the rest to my neighbor before they rotted. Home grown tomatoes are the best! I will never eat store bought again. I am recycling the topsy turvy from last year, and bought 3 more to add for this year. I am growing big boys again, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers. They're all doing great! I used a cheap plant hanger from walmart last year, counterbalanced with a bird feeder. This year I bought a sturdy 4 plant hanger. It's nice and tall, and mounted sturdily to my deck. I even branched out and set up a timer for my hose when I went on vacation. I have an automatic watering system set up for about $50 or less, so they all get watered twice a day whether or not I'm home. They're doing better than ever now that I set up that watering system. I live in southern maryland. Temperature here is regularly 90 or more during the summer. NO problems. Just last night, we had a nasty storm. Some branches fell down in our yard. All four planters and my watering system appear to still be intact. Next year I am going to double my crop, and add herbs to the tops of the planters. I love having a vegetable garden where I can just walk out onto my deck to pick fresh veggies every day. No effort, no maintenance required, self watering, just have to make sure the vines don't kill eachother trying to climb where they shouldn't, and remember to pick the fruits before they rot! Wish they were more attractive and wish I could find a way to move them inside and keep growing over the winter. But hey, going on 2 seasons of success is not bad at all for a brown thumb like mine!

So it is a little bit of a sloppy design but it works...i am not a fan of the white sponge cushion thing, and nor did i grow tomatoes in it...but it kept humidity and wathering was a breeze...

I bought this for my mom who loves home-grown tomatoes. The planter does what it's supposed to do. Plant obviously does not come with the product. Buy that separately.

Didn't buy from amazon but its worthless. I got 1 tomato off it and I took great care of it. All my other plants that are in the ground are doing wonderful. Will never buy again and wouldn't recommend it to anyone!

I was as excited as any of the positive reviewers when I first got my topsy turvy home. So I immediately put in a tomato plant, of course, which leads to my first caveat: it is really, really hard to plant one of these things without breaking the stem some way or another. Two days after my first attempt, I was back at the garden center picking out a new tomato plant. But I was even more careful the second time, and managed to get my second plant established. This, however, leads to the second caveat: even though I bought a teeny tiny baby seedling, the darn thing is curling around itself to grow upright. I must not be the only person to have this problem! My final caveat: if you might want to move the established plant at all, don't bother with this system. Once it's there, it's stuck there. Later this afternoon, I will be heading out to my local garden center to get a patio pot for upright growing. I just hope it's not too late to repot this guy! The one good thing I'll say about my own experience: like many of the negative reviewers, I live in an arid climate (New Mexico), but unlike them, I did find that the root bag retained water well and stayed moist. If you water at dusk (to minimize evaporation) it really only takes a half gallon a day.

Save your money! Grow the tomato in the ground, or in a pot! This item is annoying: from putting it together (the top doesn't snap on well), to having to build a special hanger to hold such a heavy item, to being hard to water from the top, to the instructions which tell you to get the right fertilizer without being specific about which one. Avoid this one!

Before ever hangin the topsy turvy one of the three wire hangers came uncrimped. The wire ring at the top of the basket also was not crimped in place. very poor construction.

Planted tomatoes last year and they rotted, the drain holes did not line up. Re-planted more after drilling out the holes in the fabric and plastic bottom. slower growing, smaller and not ripe. This year the plant was slow growing and just rotted off again due to lousy drainage. I use an earthbox for growing tomatoes and it is heads and tails better than the Topsy Turvy planter. Plants in the earth box have grown very well for the last several years and yield very high. The topsy-turvy is an idea that will fade out as people find out it doesn't work very well at all.

I do not have a green thumb. When I decided to grow my own vegetables due to the high cost in the markets, I wanted something easy and I figured you can't get any easier than this. So far, so good. I have a tiny tomato starting and Many ready to drop their flowers. The plant is growing very fast and I can't wait for the rewards. I am purchasing a socond one and I'm going to try cucumbers next.

We bought this back in March and immediately planted a small cherry tomato plant in it. For the first several weeks, I was afraid it wouldn't grow. Yes, you have to water it daily... but we added some coir to the soil, and really- once a day is plenty. Several weeks ago, this thing just exploded! The thing grew so fast, and tomatoes started showing up- we now have probably a hundred tomatoes almost ready to pick! I had to just move this thing from our original spot, hanging from a 5' fence... and relocate it to the first floor overhang... about 15' in the air (yes, it IS heavy, and yes-you do need to make sure your hooks are strong, and secure)... and the vines are STILL touching the ground! We realize we're going to have to train the vines to somehow climb back up onto the plant so they don't continue to drag on the concrete, but I am really impressed at how well this thing really worked. We planted yellow pear tomatoes and patio tomatoes in barrel planters on the same day, but they have really not yet produced. We have a few green tomatoes there, but they are really, really slow to ripen. Anyway- all in all, for ten bucks, this has turned out to be a great deal! We'll have enough cherry tomatoes for ALL our Summer salads, salsa, sauces, etc.