Topsy Turvey Experiment : Conclusion

This past summer  I stared a little experiment to test out the Topsy Turvey product.  I gave an update and another update.    I then got preoccupied and didn't write further.   I figured I should follow up and post a conclusion.   I'm sure you've been waiting on the edge of your seat. 

Summary:
We bought a Topsy Turvey mostly on a whim and then planted a tomato plant in it.  We spent money on potting soil, the plant, the Topsy Turvey and some fertilizer.  It was easy to setup and maintain. 

We did get some nice tomatoes out of it.   However our first tomato ripened and we didn't pick it in time before it started to spoil.   Then the weather turned cold.    We didn't actually get a harvest off the plant.  However it did have at least a couple edible tomatoes.  

We started too late in the season and then didn't harvest on time.   That was our mistake.


Conclusion:  Inconclusive

Its hard to judge the Topsy Turvey based on our experience since we planted too late.   I don't know if we'd have had a more bountiful harvest if we'd started earlier but I assume so.   We did get a couple tomatoes that we could have harvested but failed to harvest.  So there was some success. 
Overall I think the Topsy Turvey worked fine.   But as I said the results of the experiment are inconclusive since we started too late and failed to harvest.

Most of the purpose of growing our tomatoes was to have fun and try to grow our own vegetables. 

Money and Time spent:
Day 1: Time spent 1 hour, cost $22
Week 1 : Time spent 1-2 minutes.
Week 2-4 : Time spent 3-6 minutes.
Week 5-8 : Time spent 3-6 minutes.

Total cost $22, Total time 1-2 hr. 
Harvested Crop = nothing.  
Lost crop = couple tomatoes

Topsy Turvey Experiment : Update #2 - One Month In

About a month ago I stared a little experiment to test out the Topsy Turvey product.   We're growing tomatoes in our Topsy Turvey.   I'm trying to answer two questions for myself:   Is it a worthwhile product?   Is it a good investment of time and money?

In my second update on the experiment I showed the progress after one week.   The update summary then was 'so far so good'.   Now its been a full month since we started so I figured I'd give another quick update.

Todays Update:   So far so good.

The tomatoes are continuing to grow and there have been no problems with the Topsy Turvey.   The only additional work has been watering which takes my wife a few seconds a day.

You can see in the photo that our tomato plant now has 4 tomatoes growing on it.   The larger tomato is between the size of a golf ball and a tennis ball right now.   The other tomatoes are about 1" in diameter roughly.

Money and Time spent:
Day 1: Time spent 1 hour, cost $22
Week 1 : Time spent 1-2 minutes.
Week 2-4 : Time spent 3-6 minutes.

Did I mention they are Organic?

I guess I forgot to spell this out previously.   We are growing the tomatoes 'organically' which for us means we're not using any pesticides or herbicides on them and only using a natural fertilizer.  This shouldn't impact things a lot either way, but its a detail I figured I'd mention.  Eventually when I compare the return on investment I'll be comparing to the cost of buying organic tomatoes which are more expensive than non-organic.

Topsy Turvey Experiment : Update one

This is the second post in a series. I started the experiment with the first post The Topsy Turvy Garden Experiment.

This is just a quick update on our progress with the Topsy Turvy. 

So far so good. 

We've been watering it every day as its been pretty warm lately.   The tomato plant is starting to bear one decent size tomato already.  You can see the tomato in the picture to the left.   The tomato is about 1.5" in diameter already.   That picture is actually from a day ago.  I looked at the plant again and I think theres another small tomato starting.

My wife waters the plant when she lets the dog out.  She spends about 10 seconds a day to water it.  So over a week she has spent an additional 1-2 minutes of time.   I thought about seeing if Home Depot had automatic watering equipment but the cost wouldn't be worth it for a single plant.  Course theres no real reason to get automatic equipment cause my wife is not having a problem remembering to water it.   It was just an idle thought that crossed my mind.

So far the time and money spent is as follows:
Day 1: Time spent 1 hour, cost $22
Week 1 : Time spent 1-2 minutes.


I will do future updates when anything notable happens rather than writing to tell you every week that we're still watering it.

The Topsy Turvy Garden Experiment

This weekend my wife and I bought a Topsy Turvy tomato planter.   The purchase was pretty much a whim.   My sister had introduced us to the product over July 4th when we were visiting her.  My wife has been interested in doing some gardening at home.   Then we ran across a display of Topsy Turvy planters at our local grocery store for 50% off.  Buying a Topsy Turvy planter seemed like a good idea.    I'm not sure if it really was a good idea or not.   The only way to know first hand if it was a good purchase will be to try it.   I figured I'd make it an experiment and document our experiences and results in a series of posts.

Couple Questions to Address in the Experiment:

Is the Topsy Turvy a worthwhile product??

Is growing tomatoes with a Topsy Turvy a good investment in time and money?

To determine if the Topsy Turvy is a good product I'll make a personal judgment based on my experiences with it.  The answer to this question will be my personal opinion and based on my sum of experiences with the product at the end of summer.   To answer the second question I'll figure out how much money we saved versus buying tomatoes and  evaluate if that savings is worth the cost of the Topsy Turvy and other materials and our time investment.  Organic tomatoes cost $2.50 to $5.00 per pound depending on the variety.  

Note: This is not a scientific experiment at all.  To do a better experiment I should really also have a tomato planted traditionally in the ground.  My wife and I are novice gardeners so we may kill the plant due to our own mistakes.
 
Day One: Purchase and Planting

We bought the Topsy Turvy at the store.  When we got home we opened it up and read the instructions and quickly realized we needed to make another trip to the store for potting soil, fertilizer and tomato seedling.   Needing to buy the soil and seedling seems obvious in hindsight but I guess we weren't thinking about it when we bought the Topsy Turvy initially.   I didn't know exactly how it worked and didn't read the package too well.   (obviously this purchase was not well planned... it was definitely bought on a whim).   So anyway we ran back to the store and bought some soil, fertilizer and a tomato plant.   The Topsy Turvy itself was on sale for $7.  I think we spent around $8 on the bag of soil, about $3 on the plant and another $5 on the soil.  Our total cost is about $23.   The $8 on the bag of soil and $5 on fertilizer was for a lot more product than we need for one tomato plant.  A small bag of potting soil wouldn't have been enough soil and we bought the smallest quantity of fertilizer they had.  

The labor put into the Topsy Turvy so far was mostly at the store and a few minutes to actually plant the tomato plant into the planter.   I would estimate that we've put about 1 hour of effort into it so far.   The end result is one young tomato plant hanging in our back yard (pictured at left).

Initial investment : About $23 and 1 hour labor


If you're interested in a longer more detailed experiment that assessed the savings of planting a garden then check out The Year-Long GRS Project: How Much Does a Garden Really Save? from Get Rich Slowly.  I borrowed the idea for my experiment from GRS, but my own experiment is on a much smaller scale.