The Helpful Gardener wrote:...This confirms what I have always said here about Nature and natural biological systems trumping man-made gizmos...
LOL Let the truth be told, yes you did mentioned that once or twice before
And you were right for not wasting your time with it! I'm very attentive to my plants and garden, maybe too attentive, but no matter what I've tried or how much care I gave to those upside-downs, results were less than desirable...
Here is the little summary - I've had few extra seedlings left over after giving away about 50-60 last year, so I thought why not to try...
In the beginning - yest, plants did grow very fast, almost faster than what's in the ground, but then - slowed down, and down the hill from there. Watering 2 times per day was a must in VA, where naturally growing plants - once every 3-4 days for the raised beds and once per week in the soil level patch.
While I mentioned that it maybe a good thing that there is no way the lower leafs to touch the ground, hence, less likely to catch the some leaf disease - the truth is, every time it rained, water from saturated soil in the bucket poor every time from the bottom hole where the main stem is growing from, and directly onto the leafs. Maybe if I used 100% soil-less media, would have been ok, but since I've used a mixture of compost and little garden soil (in hopes to introduce the good biology into the bucket), leafs often turned yellow and spotted (specially mid summer, and soon after the rain). So plenty of pruning was done!
In all honesty - I've had more fruit from a shallow 12" and 16" hanging baskets of yellow and red Tumbling Toms, besides, looked better on the deck to begin with! You live, you learn.
Regards,
D
