Upside-down tomatoes — do I need a fancy planter?

Factual Questions
1

I’ve seen lots of ads for butt-ugly upside-down tomato planters. They look like overpriced upside-down tomato planters. Is there anything special about them? Can I just take a hanging basket, line it with a coco mat, put tomato sets through the bottom, dirt in the top, and treat them like a regular tomato plant? If there’s an earthquake, will it be a case of shimmy-shimmy-coco mat, shimmy-shimmy-plop?

Thanks,

Rhythm

2

I have one of the cheap upside down tomato planters. A coco mat and basket will be pretty much the same thing. The only downside I see is that the planter contains a lot more soil than most hanging baskets I have seen.

3

We have some pretty deep ones – but how much depth do we need? Can lateral area make up for depth?

4

I used some cheap five gallon plastic buckets, and no coco mat. I planted basil on top, and stuck tomatoes through the bottom. (Hint - wrap the roots in saran wrap and put them through the hole, then unwrap them and add dirt. This keeps them from tearing.)