How to make an upside down tomato container

All you really need is a bucket with a hole punched out, a paper towel, a tomato plant, and some potting soil.

 If you don't want to shell out money for a Topsy Turvey, it is actually quite easy to make an upside down tomato container of your own with a few things that you may already have around the house.

Carefully thread the tomato plant through the paper towel and hole through the bucket. 

 The first step is to take the paper towel and rip a hole in it.  Carefully thread the tomato plant through the paper towel and then through the hole in the bucket.  The paper towel will help prevent soil from pouring out of the hole and will also help keep the tomato plant in place.

Use chairs or some other way to hold the bucket up if you do not have a helper to hold it up.  The last thing you want is a damaged tomato plant.

 Add the potting soil while the bucket is right side up.  Use a helper or chairs to hold up the bucket so that the tomato plant does not get damaged while the soil is added.

Bucket in place!

 The last step is to water the plant.  You can do this while the bucket is still on the ground or after it is hung up.  Make sure to water it well.  At this point, the excess water will run out through the hole.  This is how it will be and will not affect the tomato plant.  The paper towel will help keep the soil from running out with the water until the tomato plant's stem grows larger and eventually fills the hole.

Use 5 gallon plastic pots as tomato containers.

 Another method is to take black plastic pots that are of 3 or 5 gallon size and make them into hanging containers.  All that needs to be done is to make hanging attachments and punch out a hole for the plants to be threaded through.

Strings attached to hang container.



Tomato plant threaded through container.




Containers being hung up.




Potting soil added to each container.




Watering.




Finished!

 Any type of tomato plant will work in an upside down container.  The important thing to remember is to water the plants more often than upright grown tomato plants in containers.  Because the water is running out next to the stem and the roots are at the top of the container, the roots will dry out much faster.  Another tip is to hang the tomato container in a location where it will receive at least 8 hours of sunlight and to give it an application of water soluable fertilizer such as Miracle-Gro once a week. 

For more information, check out:  How to make an upside down tomato planter

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