I Have To Stick That Where???

Ok, as of this posting I have had the plant about 16 days and it has been planted in the bag for 14, as of the 17th. I have watered and fertilized and all of that. And I have no real complaints about the Topsy Turvy system, except for this one: Getting the plant into the bag with out inducing serious trauma/damage is a royal pain. Granted, I had to whittle down my soil ball before insertion, but that hole is maybe a 2-2.5" diameter. My peat pot was about 4-5" diameter. All of the Bonnie Plants tomatoes were like that. I'm guessing this isn't abnormal.

Next, having to shove the plant into the hole, upside down, while trying VERY hard not to impact the root system with one hand, while using the other to reach in from the other side with the foam locking "washer". Is a real treat. You want to get as much of the plant as possible on the inside of the foam insert, while obviously leaving about 25-30% of the top of the plant exposed. Having the soil all around that stem will prompt root growth from the stem and improve the long-term health of your plant.

Note: when you are first adding the potting mix AFTER insertion and "locking" of the plant, be VERY careful for two reasons. First, just dumping several quarts of patting mix directly on top of live roots is a bad idea. Be gentle until the roots are covered by an inch or two of soil, all around. Then you can start pouring in. Second, since you are including a lot of the stem inside of the bag, when you are first adding mix, your root ball is sort of suspended about 4-5" above the bottom of the bag. So you need to hold the outside of the plant in such a way that the ball stays pretty much in the center of the bag. once you have soil all around it, it will stay put.

There is another company that sells hanging tomato bags. They have a zippered bag and a separate, external, wire frame. This frame is hinged and will open up. You are supposed to be able to just open up the frame and bag and simply lay your entire plant in there how you want. Then fill it with some mix, zip it up, hang it up, and then finish adding the mix. Looks good in pictures but the user reviews have been mixed.

Finally, once I got the bag about halfway full, I added some of my tomato fertilizer. I then finished off the mix, to within about 2" of the top. The last step was to water. Your mix is moist-ish, but if you dump a load of water in there all at once, it will just pour out of the drain holes. The instructions don't lie. Add this first watering, sloooowwwwly. Give your mix time to absorb the water. I took about 20 minutes to add a gallon or so. Subsequent waterings have been a bit less in volume and added a little more quickly. I will still have some flow-trough though. Either along the stem where it enters the bag, or through the drain holes.

Next up: Finally! Some pictures!