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

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upside-down-tomatoes-do-i-need-a-fancy-planter/532151>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 11, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upside-down-tomatoes-do-i-need-a-fancy-planter/532151 "2010-03-11T20:09:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upside-down-tomatoes-do-i-need-a-fancy-planter/532151/1 "2010-03-11T20:09:46Z")

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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

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**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upside-down-tomatoes-do-i-need-a-fancy-planter/532151/2 "2010-03-11T20:25:21Z")

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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.

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**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upside-down-tomatoes-do-i-need-a-fancy-planter/532151/3 "2010-03-11T21:27:21Z")

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

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**Author:** ![The\_Punkyova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@The\_Punkyova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Punkyova)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upside-down-tomatoes-do-i-need-a-fancy-planter/532151/4 "2010-03-12T01:39:18Z")

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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.)