Here are two close-ups showing placement of the bolts. The middle two go through both the 2x4 and the 2x6, then into a t-nut on the other side of the 2x6. The top and bottom bolts go through the 2x4, then through the bucket and into the 3x1 1/8 piece of cedar, with another t-nut on the other side of that.

I definitely tried to use the holes that were there on some of those - I saw some attempted holes that I gave up on, and just used the two at the bottom! I don't know why some were so hard, and others not.




When placing the tomatoes in the buckets, I put a bolt into the cedar piece from the outside, to position it, then pack some soil in until the wood is held in place (about 1/2 full), then remove the bolts and place the bucket over the ones on the post (I put all of those up first, and use some extras for positioning). I start the threads, then zip them on with a cordless nut driver. Then I pack the rest of the compost/soil in.

Dave

I'm bumping this up because I'm thinking of doing some upside down tomatoes. My heirlooms have fusarium, and I'm going to have to pull them as they tomatoes ripen, but in the meantime I've got to keep my backup plants going.

Dave, your system looks great! No staking! the drippers are a great idea.

You are still feeling good about this method? Do you think the yield is the same?

Some varieties do better, while others seem to do better in the ground. It seems the cherries do better in the ground, and growing up the fence, and large ones supposedly break the tomatoes, though I haven't had this happen. I'll find out this season - I have a beefsteak I put on because I broke one originally destined for the pot, and had no more!

Last season I had worse luck with it, due to the second hottest summer on record here, and pots stay hotter than the ground, but even the ones in the ground dropped almost all of their blossoms until it got cooler. I had to water them daily, just to keep them alive.

Dave

I planted 1 in green bucket 1 in white bucket same set up on both green bucket is out growing white bucket go figger?? I put cheese cloth in bottom of my bucket to help hold soil and a bucket of compost over the top with holes in the bottom and water through this it keeps my roots fed and waters at the same time. mine look great 1 ACRE CLAY

Dave, interesting about the cherries. I was thinking it's even easier to put shade cloth over the buckets than to put it over the plants on hot days, so it seems like that would be another plus.

1 acre, are you saying you have two buckets on each other, lip to lip, the bottom with soil and the top with compost? I'm not sure exactly what you mean by a bucket of compost?

Hey, green outdoing white??? Wow, Maybe we should take a poll.

What color buckets does everyone have, and are you all seeing a difference?

I only have a gray bucket, along with 14 whites. Haven't noticed any difference.

Those cherries are definitely doing much better in the ground! They are well over 5' tall, with countless branchings, and I even noticed a new stem coming up out of the ground, a couple inches from one of the sunsugars, and it is already 3' high! I go out there and pick those - getting every one with a hint of color, and two days later there is another 3 qts of cherries. And the blacks are just starting! The black cherries seem to be doing about the same in the UD, but it's still early...maybe I just don't see them on the fence because they are covered up so much.

Got my first green zebra today! This is about the normal time for those, and there are incredible numbers of them out there.

Dave