Upside Down

A friend gave me a little gift.  It's one of those contraptions for growing things upside down.   Since I have a nice raised bed, it's not the kind of thing I would have thought to get myself, but I'm going to give it a go.  

I had already planted all of my heirloom tomatoes, so I got an Early Girl hybrid from a local plant nursery.  My thinking is that this process could be a little stressful for the plant, so maybe a hardy plant would have the best chance.  The plant I started with was fairly tall, so I pinched off the bottom sets of leaves and left the bushy top sticking out the bottom.  The rest I filled with a potting mix.  

Normally, I wouldn't grow a tomato in potting soil, but I think my red clay-based garden soil would be way too heavy for the apparatus.  

I have two real concerns with this set up.  For one, the bag is really heavy once it's filled with soil and watered in.  I have it hanging on a post with my other tomato plants in the garden.  The post is bending quite a bit, and I worry if it can support the weight of the whole thing as it grows and produces fruit.  The other major concern is watering.  If we have a very dry summer and that poor plant relies on me to water it by hand, that could be it's demise.  My raised beds have a hose that runs through them with little sprinkler heads attached, so all I have to do is turn them on and off at a hose by the back door.  Easy.  If it's consistently dry, I can put them on a timer.  If I have to make a separate trip out there with a watering can....well, that might not happen.  It's hard to predict one's level of lethargy in the middle of summer in the Deep South.  100 degree days and 98% humidity can take it out of you.  But I'll try to keep it going. 

Good luck little tomato.   

Good luck with your own gardens this year!

Lori