A successful tomato experiment

We harvested the last of our gravity tomatoes today, the ones planted on the cheap on June 17. (Photo was taken several weeks ago.)

If I counted correctly, we picked 18 small but juicy Rutgers tomatoes from the upside-down plant. What I found unusual is that not one tomato was bug-infested or had bad spots. It's been my experience that about half the tomatoes on a right-side-up plant go bad.

Maybe there is something to growing tomatoes upside down, but don't fall for the $19.95 TV version. Make one yourself for a few pennies.

Gravity tomato update

On June 17 I told how you could build one of those gravity-tomato contraptions for $1, the kind that cost $19.95 plus $8.95 shipping on TV.

Almost two months later, you can see how mine is doing in the photo. I have about 18 healthy looking orbs on the plant.

The major drawback I see for this mode of planting is that you have to water the thing about three times as much as when the plant was in the ground. Even when it rains, the soil inside the plastic bucket tends to dry out quickly.

I only built the device so I could see if a $1 bucket could match the $29 TV version. In my opinion, it did.