Customer Reviews

The Upside-down Tomato Garden

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

We too were looking forward to this thing and have had plants growing in the kitchen waiting as it was on backorder. Once it was received we found it was flimsy plastic that is completely unstable once full of dirt and the black plastic in the hot sun makes it worse. It has toppled over twice so far on us and will be suprised if the plants survive. I too went to Lowes and got 4 1" wood dowels to replace the weak corner supports which helped some but it still fell the second time with those in. The base and 4 corner supports need to be hard plastic of some kind. Again a great idea but with the grief and waiting for it am VERY disappointed and will be returning for a refund. I could have built something myself for less time and money.

The product description said, "Heavy-duty plastic grow box is supported by a PVC center pole and metal supports." Well, I opened the box and the supports are plastic. And they bend under the weight of the dirt on top. I love the idea, but I feel ripped of and would like to know how to get the company or Amazon to make their description true by sending me metal supports. I don't know anything about advertising rules, but I feel like that line was dishonest and that seems wrong.

PROBLEM 1: The photo for this product as of 5/1/2007 shows steel side rods that hold up the top of the planter. This product shipped with plastic rods, not the steel ones shown in the photo. PROBLEM 2: Not all of the rods had connectors, so I contacted the manufacturer directly. To their credit, they immediately sent the missing pieces via FedEx. PROBLEM 3: Once all of the dirt was in the top of the planter, it lasted 2 days before tipping over. The plastic rods holding this planter up are not strong enough. This planter was even a greehouse (so no wind affected it). It was on a level surface. There was sand and gravel in the base to weight down the bottom, as the instructions indicated that I should do. PROBLEM 4: This product was greatly overpriced at $85 after shipping. RESOLUTION: I threw it away before ever using it.

I'd been looking at the Upside Down Tomato Garden for quite some time while debating purchasing it. And after reading through some of the reviews, I was pretty cautious due to the stability issue. A few weeks ago I decided to go ahead and buy it. Luckily, it's been great for me so far.

It was very easy to put together. It did come with PVC pipe instead of metal as pictured. (The photo really does need updating). I quickly put the planter together. I used sand to stabilize the bottom. I purchased a few small tomato plants and inserted them through the holes on the top. Then, I filled it with potting mix. I do think this is key. Use potting mix and not garden soil. It's MUCH lighter and does a better job with container gardening. I then added marigolds and pepper plants to the top. Because of the warnings I'd read about stability I added extra support by loosely zip tying two of the legs to my deck. Luckily, it's turned out that the tying was unnecessary as it has remained steady enough to remove them.

It's now 3 weeks later and the tomato plants have grown like crazy. I have small tomatoes growing and a LOT of blooms. Watering is easy and the plants are bug free. Since I cannot have an in-ground garden, I don't have a lot of options. This was perfect.

I'm glad that I made the purchase. It was a great introduction to container gardening. I was inspired enough to plant squash, zucchinis and more peppers in additional containers.

Note: I added reference photos and will add more later in the season.

April 2008 Note: For some reason the pictures I uploaded last year disappeared from the site. I have uploaded them again for anyone's reference. After putting this unit in storage, I will be taking it out and using it again this year. My challenge last year was keeping it consistently watered. I will be using an irrigation drip in order to provide consistent water this time if I am away. All in all, I had great results (there's a picture of one Sunday's harvest uploaded). In reading the reviews, there are certainly a fair amount of people who are dissatisfied with the planter. The picture of the unit still needs to be updated and care taken for stability. I did worry during a heavy storm, but luckily enough the planter never toppled. I feel fortunate that I had success with it. By the way, I can't emphasize enough the importance of using lightweight potting mix. I can't wait to get started again this year.

July 2008 Update: I using this planter for the second year. Noting all of the concerns regarding stability, I decided to add a bit of reinforcement. I went to Home Depot and bought pipe to use instead of the plastic 2-piece legs. I wanted to be able to move it around on the deck when necessary and thought this would help. Though it was successful for me last year, I would not have grabbed it by the legs to move it as I do now. It is unfortunate that the material for the legs was changed as it is a good product. Outside of this unit, I am using the Earthbox system which I now consider to be better than the upside down garden. I planted peppers in the Earthbox garden and they are doing remarkably well. They are ahead of the peppers I planted last year in development by a number of weeks. I would now rate this item as 4 stars and the Earthbox system as 5 stars.

Tomatoes die every time, I replanted 3 times, trying different varieties, having my husband move it to different spots (it is extremely heavy due to sand on the bottom) to make sure there was enough sun. It is also very messy as water mixed with dirt pours out the holes designed for tomatoes. The contraption is very unstable even after sand was poured in the bottom half as instructed.

On the bright side - the peppers and the cucumbers planted on the top did grow. I am sending this one back for the principle of it, even though it will be such a hassle to disassemble it, pour the sand out, and ship it.

Opened the box and the corner support pipes were plastic rather than the advertised galvanized steel. In order to fit in the box, all the support pipes come in two pieces with a connector and this is where the primary point of weakness lies.

My wife called the manufacturer to comment and he is sending out a new base and support poles. The manufacturer said that he changed manufacturing companies and that is why this happened.

In the meantime, we cut long pieces of 3/4 inch PVC and duct taped them to each of the corner plastic supports to straighten out the bend in the spot where the connectors join the corner supports. We also did the same thing to the middle support only we used a steel rod for that one.

The unit now stands on its own but continues to lean a bit to the side. The tomatoes, marigolds and peppers look like they enjoy the arrangement but we only put this patio garden up over this weekend.

We had to pay an extra $30 for standard shipping to Hawaii so this is an expensive lesson to make sure we read all the reviews.

This is one piece of JUNK. No suger here, If you have $65 to throw away, this is it. The planter I got is not what is in the photo's. My planter came with plastic poles that empty could barely hold up the top part of the basket. When I added the requided potting soil to the top part of the planter, it collapsed right away distroying the plants with it. The shame of it the thing is made in the USA. Go figure.

I was really looking forward to this. A total piece of garbage! Good idea but very poorly designed. Very unstable. Had to take it down before if fell down.

This is the third crop of tomatoes I will be trying to grow in this product. I don't know if it is me, the elements, the varieties, the soil... lots of factors, but I just can't get them to grown in this planter. I have heard you aren't supposed to let the leaves of the tomato plant get wet (water only the soil below the plant in a traditional "right side up" situation). With this upside down planter, the water "rains down" through the holes where the tomato plant stems are. Every time I water, all the leaves get totally soaked. Anyway, I am not very impressed with the product, or the resulting plants and tomato fruit.

I received my UDTG, as advestised with the centered PVC pipe a 1/4 inch thick and 4 heavy duty metal rods for supporting the corners. The bottom plastic base can be filled with sand or water for additional stability which isn't necessary after you fill the top base supported by the metal rods.

I have had my UDTG for just under a year and the veggies produced from it has payed for it several times overs. My kit sits on my patio and haven't suffered any wear or tear from the sunny southern California weather.

My garden is crowded with: Lemom Balm Melissa, peppermint herbabuena, Italian Parsley, rosemary, 4 Tomato celebrity plants and 2 string onion plants.

I'm not a green thumb by trade. I just planted the plants in recommended veggie soil and water it at least twice a day due to the weather here. Almost every other day I'm pulling tomatoes or cutting the peppermint, lemon balm or onion plants to keep them under control.

Caution the peppermint plant will take control of your entire garden and may undermine the size of your tomatoes if you don't keep your garden well nourshish.

So if you get everything as the manufactor described (ie...metal support rods) then you should have positive results.

At first my wife wasn't pleased with the $70.00 simple concept kit but now we can't get enough of the yield from it. Perfect sweet undamaged tomatoes, fresh herb peppermint, lemon or parsley tea every day. A big money saver.