Upside Down Tomato Planter 2.0 23 June, 2008

Well I’ve promised this awhile ago and I’m finally getting around to it. The second version of the How To Build an Upside Down Tomato Planter using a method described by Amber.

What you Need:

A 2 liter bottle

Water

The ability to heat water

A sharp knife

A plant

Potting soil

Optional:

coffee filter

Jiffy starter

So we start off with your run-of-the-mill 2-liter bottle that’s been cleaned out.  I’m using an old Dr Thunder bottle because I’m a caffeine addict to such an extent that the savings over the “good stuff” is significant.

Hot water.  If you have children and set your water heater accordingly, your water may not be hot enough.  The water at my house is set pretty much as high as can be done with any semblance of sanity.  If you find your tap water isn’t hot enough, just pour a bit of heated water into the bottle with hot tap water in it to make it warmer.

This is about as full as you want it to be.  A little less than this would probably work better for you.

Turn the bottle upside down and let it “cook” like that for a little while.  You want the plastic to heat up to the same temperature as the water so that it’s more pliable.  Once it’s hot to the touch (not scalding or anything, just hot) you’re ready to start working.

As much as possible, do your work in or next to the bathtub so that if you have a water leak you don’t drench the wife’s favorite rug or something.

You can see we’ve jammed the nozzle in a bit.  This is accomplished by simply pushing down on the bottle while it’s upside down.  Don’t do this on the edge of the tub, I just have it sitting there for the picture.  (If you try it on a slippery surface you’ll probably just hurt yourself.  I pushed it on the carpet.)  If you have any trouble getting the collapse started, try whacking it down on the floor.  Be careful here, it’s certainly not easy to rupture a 2-liter bottle but don’t get carried away.  Just a good thump is all you need, once it starts to bend you can work it with just a push.

Here we’ve got near-full compression.  To get to this point you have to turn the bottle upright, loosen the cap to let some air out, re-tighten it and then flip it over and push some more.  Repeat that procedure several times until you’ve got what’s normally the top of the cap even with the rest of the plastic as seen here.

Now go around the rim and pinch the plastic to crease it as shown here.  This is to produce a more even, consistent bottom all the way around.

Like this.  You can see there’s plenty of room around the cap here.  We actually want to get rid of all that room because that’s space that roots and dirt could be, but mostly because that’s potential water storage area when the planter is turned over.  To fill that out, flip the bottle over once more, push it solidly down against the floor, and then crush the sides inward with all your might.  (Squeezing between your knees is a good way to put the larger muscles of your body to work.)

Basically you want to puff that part of the bottle out like a balloon.

Puffy!  There’s a drawback to this – it’s now a royal pain in the backside to get the cap off if you did this right.  I use a pair of pliers because I’m not patient enough to twist and twist with my fingers until it comes loose.

Finally, empty the bottle of as much water as you can (it won’t empty completely) and then chop the bottom off with a knife (don’t stab yourself).  Once you’ve got a bit of a cut opened you can get the rest of the water out.

Finished product.  You can see how the plastic bubble at the bottom looks like it’s “sucked in” against the nozzle.  This maximizes the area at the bottom that can hold water – something a tomato plant can gulp down at an astonishing pace.

That’s it!  Now for the optional stuff and installation of the plant.

For the standard plant installation (ie. a plant you bought at the store or have grown in a pot) see the Original Upside Down Tomato Post.

What’s this, a tiny seedling actually started in the planter?  Yes!

What we have is an ordinary Jiffy starter with a tomato seed germinated in it until it was big enough to reach through the nozzle of the planter.  We use the chopped off bottom of the planter as a water tray for the Jiffy starter before and after this step.  Cut a coffee filter down to size and then cut a slit from the side to the middle and fit it around your plant like a Christmas tree skirt.

Now, holding the planter upside down (as pictured here) with one hand, carefully feed the JIffy starter, plant, and coffee filter upward until the plant is poking out the top.  Holding them thusly, flip your hands over so that it’s right-side up (the plant is upside down).  Put the water tray in, follow it with a cup (as shown here) or other object stable enough to support the whole thing, and flip it back over.

We want to grow the tomato right side up a bit longer, so that it can easily see around the planter to get delicious sunshine when it’s hanging.  The step shown above lets us grow the tomato by carefully watering it through the nozzle.

NOTE:  in these pictures you can see a distinct purple tint to the stem and underside of the leaves.  This is a Phosphorus deficiency.  I corrected this by feeding the seedling with water from my DWC hydroponic system.

Here’s a view of the whole thing.  Now we’ll fast-forward to the final construction step.

We flip the planter “right-side up” and remove the water tray.  This has the advantage of dumping the water into the planter and wetting the coffee filter.  With it weighed down by the water, just flatten it out so it nicely blocks anything from getting through the nozzle.  Note that the seedling still has a slight purple tint at the tips of the leaves but the stem is nice and green.  The deficiency is clearing up.

Dump in a little soil to anchor everything in place.

Another shot, you can really see the fading purple of the phosphorus deficiency here.

Finish filling up the planter with your soil.  I highly recommend using some good fertilizer for tomato plants if that’s what you’re putting in the planter.  Tomatoes eat more than pretty much any other plant.

Not a great shot of the staple, but you can get the idea.  Instead of tying it in place like the previous example, this time I just stapled the cloth cover to the rim of the planter.  I folded it over the top and stapled through it and the plastic to form a good strong connection.

I also went a different route with the hanging of the planter.  I took six strands of twine, tied them together at one end, and then knotted them to make a tight-fitting net.  I used an unopened 2-liter as a form for this process so that it would fit properly – not too tight and not too loose.  Be careful sliding the planter into this so as to not damage the small plant.

Here you can see the bottom.  I used a prepared upside-down planter to measure out the length of the net, and then tied the opening much narrower so that the planter couldn’t slip out the bottom.  It takes a little working to get the cloth cover straightened out and tucked in at the bottom, but it’s easily done.  The extra length of netting can be used later as support for the vine, though if you start from a very small plant like this you’ll probably find it turns the corner and grows pretty much straight up the side of the planter.  Which means you can carefully tie it to the netting there.

The finished product.

In case you’re curious, this is a Large Red Cherry tomato plant.

My Cat’s Breath Smells Like… Basil? 1 June, 2008

Ah, the Simpsons. Is there anything we can’t address with a reference to that show?

As you’ve probably guessed, we have an incident involving a guilty cat and an innocent young basil plant. The cat, pictured above attempting a deceptively innocent look belied by the clearly demonic eyes. I don’t have any pictures of the basil plant at the moment, maybe later. It’s feeling very violated and declined having its injuries documented.

Though honestly I can’t say as I blame the cat all that much. Basil is decidedly yummy, and if the inside of my mouth tasted like what I can only imagine the cat’s backside tastes like… yeah, I’d be inclined to seek out ways to freshen up.

But that’s no right to brutally maim a young plant just beginning its life.  I mean it’s not like it was nom or be nommed.  That basil wasn’t just biding its time until the cat lowered her guard.

On the upside, the plant seems to be recovering from the ordeal well.  It’s also safe – for the moment – from further attacks thanks to the lopped-off top of a 2L bottle (told ya, I’ve got tons of them) acting as a combination humidity tent / cat-proof force-field.

In other news, there’s been some great suggestions made on the upside down tomato planter post I did a little bit ago.  I’ve got a cherry tomato seedling that’s nearly big enough to move into its own planter, and I’ve been waiting for that to start testing some ideas I’ve had.

Also, the guy (Tim) who writes the Gabriola Garden blog finished the upside down planter project he was working on – much larger scale than my work and looks pretty good.  (In fact, if I had anything remotely sturdy enough to hang that style of planter from I’d trade up first chance I got.)  He’s got a bit of a chore now with the watering, so if you can think of a really simply system to get water into those 10 buckets without a lot of trips up and down a ladder each time, pop over there and help him out.

Finally, if anyone was wondering where I’ve been the last few days, I’ve been around but simply not allowed to use my computer.  I’ve got RSI that flares up from time to time and this is one of those times.  So in the interest of putting off the development of full-blown Carpal Tunnel for as long as possible, whenever I’m dumb enough to push myself too hard and aggravate it I just stay away from computers until the pain goes away too.

DIY Upside Down Tomato Planter 26 May, 2008

Updated Method:

If you pop down to the comments you’ll find that Amber made a brilliant suggestion on another way to build the planter. I’m going to go ahead and leave this set of instructions the way it is for people that want to do it this way, but her method is actually much superior. I have written a 2.0 post on this topic using her idea and photographs of how to do it.

Okay, once again I am not claiming ownership of this idea. I saw it on This Instructable and decided to try it myself. I have loads of 2L bottles on hand all the time so I wanted to put them to use. After a bit of trial and error I’ve come up with some tips and tricks that might help some people interested in doing the same thing themselves, and – to be brutally honest – I like my “How To” articles better than most other people’s. But hey, I’m biased. (About this)

Supplies you need:

A 2L bottle

Potting soil or other kind of dirt appropriate for growing things in

Enough decently thick cloth to cover a 2L entirely

Some twine or similarly hefty string

Some gravel or similar rocky material (optional)

Coffee filter or paper (optional)

Tools you need:

Hairdryer or heat gun

Pliers (optional)

Hotpad (optional)

Knife

Scissors (optional)

Steps:

First, clean your bottle inside and out, and get the label off. Set the cap aside – you won’t need it when you’re done, but you’ll want it for one step later on.

Okay, start off by sitting on the floor. Yeah, I’m serious. It’s just easier – you’ll see why in a bit. Take your hairdryer, set it for as hot as it goes, and low fan speed. (You may need to make adjustments since hairdryers can vary a bit. My wife’s hairdryer works best on those settings.) If your fingers aren’t fireproof you may want to use a pair of pliers to grip the nozzle as shown here. Begin heating the bottle and turning it slowly, watching for the plastic to deform as you heat it. You want to heat the entire “cone” – the curved part between the nozzle and the straight sides. It will cave in slightly as you go. (See below.)

Note: I haven’t used a heat gun to do this, as I don’t have one. The hairdryer works fine. If you use a heat gun just be careful and start slow at a low heat. Don’t melt it.

Here you can see the dent on the right side caused by heating the plastic. The goal is to get it pliable, and to begin to invert the curve. Be careful not to heat the nozzle itself, as if you deform this the cap won’t form an airtight seal later. Everything between the straight sides and the nozzle needs to be heated enough that it deforms slightly. Once you’ve done that, try to get as much of the cone warm as you can at once, then begin pressing down on the nozzle.

Here you can see the cone being gently forced downward and some creases beginning to form. Once you reach this point, set the hairdryer aside for a moment and begin pinching the crease all the way around. You want to create as neat and straight a fold as possible all the way around the point where the cone and the straight side meet. Due to the bottle being clear, this is hard to really show in a photograph, but you can see basically what I’m talking about below.

The planter is beginning to take shape here, but we’ve got a bit more refining to do. First up, we want to force the nozzle down as much as possible so that the cone is elongated. You’ve made one fold at the point where the sides and cone meet, but we want the reverse fold to happen right at the bottom of the nozzle, not partway up the cone like it is here. To do that, put the cap on (so that the nozzle will keep its shape) and start heating the area around the nozzle as hot as you can get it without melting anything. If your fingers aren’t fireproof, grab the hotpad and quickly press down on the cap as hard as you can without smashing the whole thing in. I usually have to do this in a series of steps, squeezing the bottle to pop things back out, re-creasing the outer fold, and working the shape until I’ve got it where I want it.

Above you can see it nearly through that process. The cap is nearly flush with the outer fold and the cone has been almost completely reversed. This is good enough the way it is (and I actually stopped at this point with this one – my later efforts are a bit more refined.) Now we want to “mushroom” the top. The space inside the bottle between the sides and the cone is where water will collect and keep the soil from drying out too much. We invert the cone partly to give the roots something to work into and hold onto for later when the plant gets heavy, and partly to keep all the water from running right out the nozzle. This way the water can only run out when it’s deeper than the inverted cone. A little gets caught and keeps the plant happier for longer.

We want to maximize that area by expanding the cone as close to the cap as possible. Luckily this is pretty easy. First, remove the cap and make sure the bottle is as inflated as you can get it. Then put the cap back on the bottle.

This is why you’re sitting on the floor. Put the bottle between your knees or thighs, cross your ankles, and get ready to squeeze the bottle like you’re a wrestler. Point the hairdryer straight down and start heating.

This does two things: makes the plastic pliable, and heats the air inside. Air expands when heated, which tries to further inflate the bottle. Of course 2L bottles don’t exactly “inflate” nicely, but the pliable part will tend to expand inward toward the nozzle. Squeeze the bottle with your legs as necessary to help this process. It may be helpful to periodically remove the cap to allow more air into the bottle, but keep in mind it will probably be very hot. Continue until you’ve created a nice mushroom effect all around the outer fold. It will no longer resemble a “fold”.

See how the fold has been expanded into a billowy, pillowy “mushroom” that surrounds the nozzle? If you managed to fully invert the cone – which this example is a bit short of doing – your nozzle will actually be so buried in this mushroom it may be hard to even grip the cap to remove it. If so, use the pliers to get it started. Once you’ve got about a quarter turn loosened it should come off easily.

Simply chop the bottom off, punch 4 evenly-spaced holes around the edges, and string up some twine to hang it from.

Now it’s time to prepare you plant. Use a small one. The one here is a bit too big, but I managed. Wash all the dirt off the roots (or at least as much as you can). Do at least as well as I have.

Now this isn’t a full-sized dinner plate. This is a standard Corelle desert plate. I washed the roots by simply using running water to gradually work the dirt loose as I basically “massaged” the root ball. It takes time. It’s worth taking the time to reduce the overall damage done to the roots. You’re going to hurt them a little just by doing this, but you don’t want to do more damage than absolutely necessary.

Now start threading the rootball through the nozzle. It may seem possible to go the other way (sticking the plant through from the inside) but you’re guaranteed to do a lot more damage that way unless it’s a seedling. (In fact, I plan to experiment with actually growing a seedling in a Jiffy starter, then putting it in the planter right-side up until it’s bigger, then inverting and hanging the whole thing.) The key word here is “gentle”. Be gentle, go slow, and try not to harm the roots.

Here’s another view of the process. If you haven’t roughed up the interior of the nozzle with the pliers when you were heating the bottle, you can use a bit of a twisting motion to work things along. If you did rough it up, you’ll want to avoid that since it will do extra damage to the roots.

Whatever the case, it’s far easier to do this with a smaller plant than is pictured here.

This behemoth is almost there…

Top view…

Finished! I got the entire rootball through the nozzle with very little damage. It did, however, take many minutes to accomplish that.

It was the smallest Roma plant I could find at the store, though. And I was really set on getting a Roma.

I have a lot more hydroton than I need, so I decided to use some here as the “gravel” bits for the bottom of the planter. Cradling the stalk and holding the bottom of the planter with one hand, carefully feed your rocky stuff into the top and make sure it gets past the roots and into the bottom. Fill it up to just past the nozzle.

Note: if you want to use the planter indoors, it’s highly advisable to put a coffee filter in first. Cut a slit in it and then slip the filter past the roots and work the slit around the stalk. Then put your rocky stuff in, trapping the filter between the bottle and the rocks and making it much, much harder for dirt to get out the nozzle. Outdoor planters can still benefit from this, but dirt loss is minor.

Fill up the planter with dirt, leaving a bit of room at the top. (You’ll water from the top, so you want some room for water to gather while it soaks in without spilling dirt and water over the top.) Be careful with this step, as you’re still messing with delicate roots. You want to try to keep the roots away from the sides, since they don’t like light, and get the dirt as firm as you can without actually hurting the roots. It’s a bit of a Catch-22, but there’s a middle ground to be had. Once you’re done the plant should be reasonably secure. If it feels like it could fall out, try again.

After the roots have started growing again, it will latch onto the rocks and dirt quite securely.

A quick “test hang” shows everything nicely in place. Now for the “decorative” part. If the planter will be inside this is less important, but UV light from the sun will still change the plastic and make it more brittle. We need to protect it against that, since our plant depends on this planter. We need a cover.

I had recently turned a pair of cargo pants into shorts, and because I save everything I’d saved the extra bit of cloth. A pants leg is perfect for this application. (If you’ve got old pants you may want to chop the legs up and make many planters. They’re awesome gifts.)

Pants leg and twine. Stab some holes in the top and bottom with whatever stabby thing is handy. You want to be able to thread the twine through the holes as shown below.

Basically we’ve made a drawstring here. If you look closely at the middle you can see that both ends come out of holes right next to each other, and when pulled on will cinch the bottom up tight.

Now for the top. This part is kind of cool – put one arm through the pant leg from top to bottom. Then, with that hand, pick up the planter by the top. With your other hand, pull the pant leg down off your arm and onto the planter. In one, easy motion you’ve wrapped the planter without molesting the plant.

Here I just did a very simple process of looping the twine through the holes and wrapping it around the twine used to hang the planter. Here I have the planter hanging from a handy nail to make this easy to do. Looking closely you can see that this planter uses a rather small hole cut into the bottom. This design is less than ideal; the small hole is harder to hit while watering, and prevents you from reaching in from the top when getting the plant into the bottle and filling it with rocks and dirt. My recent designs chop the entire bottom off as close to the bottom as possible. Those bottoms, incidentally, make excellent water trays for Jiffy starters.

This is a shot of the process finished up and tied off. I also have an improvement for this. Instead of tying the cloth to the twine hangers, I suggest doing the next step (cinching the bottom) first. Then pull the cloth snug (basically lift the planter by the cloth) and fold it over the top of the plastic. Pierce through both layers of cloth and the plastic between it as far down as you think is safe (perhaps half an inch or more) and then string the twine through that hole to hang the planter. That way you use the combined strength of the plastic and the cloth to support the planter. If one fails the other should hold long enough for you to notice.

Here’s a shot of the bottom cinched up around the stem of the plant. It’s not important to get this tight, just to make it look nice and make sure the cloth is too narrow for the bottle to fall through. (So the bottle won’t fall if the twine it’s hanging from tears through the plastic. That shouldn’t happen, but it’s better safe than sorry.)

The completed planter with plant.

Obviously this works with more than just tomatoes, but that’s the most popular plant for this application. I’m also planning to do this with a green pepper plant and a cherry tomato plant. Unfortunately for me, my pants have only two legs so I’ll have to scrounge up some fabric from somewhere else. I’ve got an idea for a DIY armored laptop bag, so I may use scraps from that.

It’s interesting to watch the plant adapt to suddenly being upside down. Mine is currently twisty and curved and looks kind of like a bonsai tree. New growth will most certainly be adapted to the new orientation. Keep in mind when you start this that you need somewhere to hang it from as soon as you’re done. It won’t sit on a table or something while you go figure out where to hang it.

Also, don’t hang it higher than you can easily reach to water it.

Accessories:

If you’re using a larger fruit-bearing plant – basically anything heavier than cherry tomatoes, you may want to give it something to support its weight on. A macramé chain or net can be a handy thing not only to hang the planter from, but serve as a support for the branches. If your planter is likely to experience high wind, a ground-based trellis may work better, since the plant could anchor itself more securely that way.

Stay tuned, as I develop these new ideas and test them I’ll post updates.