Container Gardening

This is the first year I’ve done any experimenting with upside-down plants.  My husband bought me the Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter for Christmas, and I’ve been itching to try it out for months.

A few months ago, I made an aborted effort to hang it in my sunroom.  It didn’t turn out very well: the hook ripped out of the ceiling, and the entire system crashed down to the floor, spilling dirt and crushing the seedling I’d placed in it.

Oops.

For my second try, I decided to take some extra precautions.  Below are the extra steps I took to ensure a stable mounting system for the Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter.

1. Get a new hook
The hook they include with the Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter is really very short for the load they expect it to bear.  I went out to my local hardware store and got a larger hook, designed to hold a weight of over 200 lbs.  Is that overkill?  Almost certainly.  But the last thing I want is to have the tomato plant get larger and fuller and lush, producing beautiful fruit… all of which is destroyed when the hook gives way.

2. Mount the hook horizontally, not vertically
When you insert the screw into the ceiling, the threads are the only part of the screw holding it in.  All the weight of the plant is working against the weakest part of the connection.  It would not take much splintering to rip the hook free of the stud into which it’s screwed.  When you mount it into a wall, parallel to the ground, the entire length of the screw helps support the planter.  The wood would have to crack significantly before the screw ripped loose.

3. Use potting mix, not soil
Soilless potting mix is much lighter than dirt, and will add less total weight to the system.  It’s much easier to hang it with potting mix than it is with soil.

I’ll update on the effectiveness of the Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter later in the season.  Next year, I’m going to try some of the make-your-own recipes for upside-down planters, to see which are more and less effective.