Review of the Felknor Ventures 82506 Topsy Turvy Upside-Down Tomato Planter

Introduction

Chances are you’ve seen this product before on television. It’s the latest craze for the television shopper and for that reason most of the reactions that people have to the product are in the region of one extreme or another. Whether people are willing to admit it out loud or not, the staggeringly vast majority of people have a reaction that is either utterly positive (i.e. the shopaholic) or utterly negative (i.e. the cynical consumer) to products that are television sensations. For this reason, it can be hard sometimes to wade through the spin and point out the facts regarding such a product, but that is exactly what the below review will attempt to do.

Product Highlights

If the product works the way it is advertised, the basic premise of the product is bringing the ground to a height that is easier and more convenient for people to reach. You hang the planter from the ceiling and put in all the water and nutrients through the patented apparatus that they have. As a result of that work, you will find your tomatoes growing downwards instead of upwards, leaving all of the pruning work to be done at eye or shoulder level and allowing you to do all of that work without any painful bending over. In theory, that is how the product is supposed to work, now let us take a look at how the product actually does work.

Tomato Quality

According to the makers of the product, a crop of tomatoes that is grown using this tool will be a crop that tastes better, looks bigger and is healthier for you. Well, in terms of the taste issue, it really is a matter of personal preference as to which tomatoes you prefer over others. Many people claim that home-grown tomatoes in a garden taste better than their store bought counterparts, but there are also many others that don’t agree with that principle.

As for healthier, the reason that these tomatoes would be healthier for you potentially is that you know for sure that they are free of pesticides and other potentially harmful substances. Genetically, they are exactly the same as any other tomato that is organically grown, but that lack of pesticide induced peace of mind is something that really appeals to some people.

Finally, on the issue of size, it is true that a lot of the time you will see tomatoes that have a larger average size through this type of product than you would with tomatoes grown out of the ground and once again there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for that. These types of tomatoes are enhanced by gravity, whereas the others are hindered by it. That’s why tomatoes grown in a downwards direction will tend to be a little larger. This principle can also be seen in aeroponics, a technique of vegetable growing that frequently utilizes the same downwards direction of growth.

Growing Convenience

Now that it has been established that this particular method of growth actually does work in producing some decent tomatoes, it is time to take a look at where this product really shines and that is in providing you with a huge increase in the personal convenience of growing tomatoes. The idea of saving your back some strain by working from a more natural position on pruning and collecting tomatoes has already been discussed, but there are also other areas in which this particular design shines.

For starters, think about all of the problems that are inherent to gardening through conventional means. If you have any experience gardening, things like dealing with bacteria, harsh growing conditions, animals getting into your crops and early frosts should all come to mind as potential problems with the conventional gardening process. If you could take that process, move it to the air and then choose whether you wanted it inside or outside, do you think that would eliminate or greatly reduce most of those problems? The answer is yes and the popularity surge of this product follows directly from how much easier it is to use relative to the normal gardening that most people still do.

Potential Problems

While this product is both innovative and highly effective, it is not perfect. If you are interested in purchasing this product, you need to temper your expectations away from perfection, because if that is how high your current expectations are then even a slight problem can derail your mood and turn a great purchase into a bad one.

For example, one potential problem with this device is its weight when it is completely full. You need to add dirt, water, nutrients and other substances as well to the grower and when all of that is packed in there, the final weight is quite heavy. This makes it hard to lift and it also means that you need a very sturdy hook from which to hang it. If you know about this problem beforehand then you can easily deal with it, but if it stumbled on you suddenly, it would be magnified in impact.

Another problem has to do with wear and tear. The soil and the Earth do not wear and tear appreciably by the timeline of a human life because they are both a lot older than we are, but like every other gardening device, this planter will show signs of wearing down. The average shelf life of one product is about 2-4 summers, so make sure you budget that into your finances accordingly if you want to make use of its ability to grow tomatoes every time the summer months roll around.

Final Thoughts

This product from Felknor Ventures is a very good one. It makes a promise and goes a long way towards delivering on that promise. If you make the usual accommodations for the exaggeration that everyone expects from marketing, the end result is a high quality product that is a definite recommendation for anyone that likes their tomatoes and would like an easier way to get them without having to go to the store or dig any holes in the process.

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