Topsy Turvy Planter watering

I have two Topsy Turvy planters with tomato plants. One is growing very fast and has five small tomatoes.
The other plant is growing very slow and has no flowers. The last one I planted about a week after the first one. I have fertilized them both with vegetable fertilizer per instructions.

My question is, how often do you water these plants??
I now water these plants every other morning around 6 a.m. Now it is getting hotter, do I water them twice a day??
I pour about 1 quart of water in each one.

I do have one tomato plant and one zucchini plant in the ground. I water them every morning. Do I start watering them twice a day??

You're going to have to figure out watering frequency for yourself--there are too many variables for someone to say once a day, twice a day, etc. Temperature, amt of sun in the area, humidity, size of the plants, how many plants are in the pot, etc will all impact your watering frequency. It's safe to say that if your temperatures are significantly hotter now and if you were watering properly before, you will need to water more often than you had been. I don't know how easy it is to get your finger into the topsy turvy planter to feel how wet it is where the plants' roots are, but that's the best way to figure out if you need to water or not. For the plants in the ground it'll be really easy to do the finger test and see how frequently they need it--if you stick your finger down an inch or two and it still feels wet, then you don't need to water but if it's drying out then you do.

If all else fails you can get a soil hydrometer from HD or Lowes. They cost around $10.00 here in east TN.

Today is going to reach 100. Sat and Sunday will be 105 t0 107 degrees. That is why I was concerned about how to water the Topsy Turvey! It seem that if the soil is set it would steam the roots!!
Thanks for all your help!

That hot, you may want to place them in at least a partly shaded area. The plastic could very well act as an over and bake the roots.

I moved them to a partial shady area like gcorrier suggested! Thanks. I never thought of that. Has anyone else ever used the Topsy Turvy???? Have you planted other vegies in it??

I tried last year, tomatos, high wind killed one plant and split the stem on another. We were not home to get them out of the storm. The one that lived gave us fruit but they were small. I'm sure due to split stem where it went into topsy turvey.

Wondered how the topsy turvy would work, sure is the 'rage' this year. You'll have to let us know how it turns out.
I would water twice a day in 100 degree weather, especially if dry heat. I know tomatoes are not supposed to be overwatered, but I think in a hanging pot you would??

I live here in Utah the hottest it's gotten so far is 93 Down here in Provo. I have a ton of flowers on mine and I have been watering them a little each day. If you feel around the outer edge of the turvey you can tell if it needs watered. Hope This Helps

I tried to plant tomatoes in a topsy turvy. After I took the plant out of its pot I had a hard time sticking it up through the hole in the foam rubber that covers the bottom. Then I had a hard time keeping it up in there far enough when I added the soil from the top. I think I messed up the roots. Anyway it died a slow death!!! No luck for me.

My neighbor is on his second year with the hanging doom. MY pappy is on his first year with his. It will be the last year they mess with them, I will not repeat the language they used. Both have tomattoes in pots and are getting a good crop. I'm not dogging the thing and guess the are OK for abalcony, or conservation, but not a lot of eats!

I was wandering about the topsy turvy so there no good there just another bad tv product.

The topsy Turvy is really good for people like us in Las Vegas that may not get too much shade (we don't have a backyard awning or any trees) so I use the topsy turvy b/c I can bring it right inside the door when it gets that hot. We also suffer form very high winds occasionally, so its another nice way to keep them safe. Also, I use the little terra cotta worms in my vegetables. I can't access the topsy turvy soil easily, but I can pull that worm out of there and see how moist it is on the bottom due to its color., I also keep a few feet of the UV shield fabric ($1.75 at Lowes) and I will attach it with clothes pins to stakes or wrap it around the plants (respectively) when the sun is really intense.

Has anyone tried to use the topsy turvy for anything other than tomatoes
???

If anyone's interested, I'm having great luck with an inverted planter I purchased from Gardener's Supply in Vermont. It's called a Gardeners Revolution planter and it comes with a water reservoir, hydrometer and capillary strips that draw the water down into the soil from reservoir. The inverted planter is a durable fabric bag, not plastic, and you place it in a wire cage that supports the entire apparatus and includes the hook and chain. You can look at the PDF for the directions on the site.

I've compared these to the topsy turvy planters and I liked this much better from the start.

If anyone is interested:

http://www.gardeners.com/Gardeners-Revolution-Planter/NewVegetableGardening_Cat,37-850,default,cp.html

They sell supports, you can see them online and I bought two for my deck, each supports four planters; however, the are expensive though attractive. My husband bought ten foot beams, treated them and sunk them into the ground out in the garden. We attached sturdy support hangers and bought 8 extra planters and its worked well.

I'm growing bush cucumbers, a smaller variety of eggplant, a bunch of different types of peppers and my tomatoes, all in inverted pots.

I also bought some earth pots from a different source, The "mulch" topper (a kind of shower cap thingy that covers the top, and you make holes for the plants and then water thru' a plastic pipe leading down to a reservoir) seems to have caused mold growth. The soil began to smell sour. It's our first year using these and we obviously did something wrong. Now the earthpots are just plain pots open to the environment and rain so I've defeated the purpose. The plants in the pots are doing fine but I need to educate myself better regarding the proper use of these.

The directions in my topsy turvy said to slighly lift the container from bottom if it was light in weight, water, if heavy no water was needed at that time, sounded reasonable to me.

When l planted my tomatoes in them, after securing the plant in the foam and in the planter I stuck the plant in the center hole of my table (where an umbrella would me inserted) then the container sat upright I was able to add the soil. Picked it strianght up and hung it on the hanger. Hope this helps.

Hello there! I bought two of the Topsy Turvy planters last Spring but being a hardcore ground planter, I didn't use them. Since I had the same problem of bugs eating my vegies, I felt it was time to go ahead and try this product out.

Since it's too hot for tomatoes, I will plant Green Bell Peppers instead. I'll let you know how it goes. Next time I'll post pics.