I started a hanging tomato garden, and not having anything to hang them from, I built a trellis using the 1 1/2 inch and the 1/2 inch PVC piping. The milk jugs I used for my garden fit perfectly on the 1/2 PVC piping, and will sit on top of the 1 1/2 inch PVC piping rectangle trellis I made!
Use a milk jug to hang the tomatoes upside down, by putting a two inch hole in the bottom and using a newspaper square with a slit in it to keep the soil in. You can even plant other plants in the top like pepper plants! I have squash in the top of this, and plan to use the trellis to keep it off the ground.
Use another milk jug to create a strawberry plant holder, cut the top off leaving the handle and cut three small holes on the flat sides of the milk jug (look at the picture) poke holes in bottom for drainage and use the styrofoam peanuts found in packing material or any other torn up styrofoam (recycle!) in the bottom instead of gravel to keep the container from being heavy. You can hang this container, or leave it sitting like you would if you had bought an expensive strawberry pot!
Great idea, but with such small containers, you will probably find yourself needing to water more than once a day. I would also be concerned about the weight once the plant grows and produces. As for me, I am having good results with upside-down tomatoes and cukes, using 3 gallon, food-grade pails that I got for free from the bakery department of my local grocery. Icings and donut fillings come in both 3 and 5 gallon pails. Bakeries go through several in one week, so they are more than happy to let you take some off their hands instead of paying to recycle or dispose of them. I cut a 2 inch hole in the bottom of my pail using a hole bit in my drill. The small new plants are secured from falling out by a peice of landscape fabric with an "x" cut into it to poke the stem through. I hang the buckets by the handle using 2 S-hooks.
Thank you so much, I have been wanting to grow tomatoes this way but could not afford the "growing baskets" now you have given me a way to do it. Tena in Tahsis
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I started a hanging tomato garden, and not having anything to hang them from, I built a trellis using the 1 1/2 inch and the 1/2 inch PVC piping. The milk jugs I used for my garden fit perfectly on the 1/2 PVC piping, and will sit on top of the 1 1/2 inch PVC piping rectangle trellis I made!
