Throw Them A Life Raft!

That's what my poor little upside down tomatoes need! Unlike the Topsy Turvy hanging planter, it is more difficult to determine if my home-made containers have enough or too much water. The instructions for Topsy Turvy say to 'lift them up' to see if they feel heavy or light. However, my containers are HEAVY even when not watered!


The leaves were turning upwards but had a 'crisp' feeling to them as though they were dried out. So I flooded the container with water until it had standing water on top. After all, the T/T instructions said not to worry about over-watering them since the excess would simply run out the bottom.


The problem seems to be that the leaves were always wet, whereas in a garden, the sun dries off rain and overnight dew. I remembered that I had a moisture meter somewhere around the house for checking potted plant moisture. Once I located it in all my 'stuff', I drilled a 3/16" hole in the lower side of each container so that I could take a moisture reading. Guess what! The reading PEGGED the meter! So, I didn't water them for two days but over the last two days we have had terrible thunder storms with LOTS of rainfall so I'm sure the containers are totally saturated all over again (from the four 1/2" holes drilled in the lids for watering).

I can never remember how to set this camera up for close-up shots so that they are more defined but you can still get the idea about TOO much watering by looking at the red needle in the photo.

Stay tuned!