TT091112 Topsy Turvy Strawberry Planter

I ordered the set of 25 Strawberry plants from Burpee. I bought this thing. Planted them according to directions, adding some perlite to my organic soil mix, also adding some fertilizer - a little blood meal and a little plant-tone powder as well to the root area of the strawberry plants as I put them in. Starting at the bottom, you carefully place the plants in the holes. The strawberry plants I got were over-wintered, meaning it was just roots. By the second day it was outside, green shoots were coming out. And now, almost 3 weeks later, the first little flowers are blooming on the plants. I put two and sometimes three plants per hole so they'd all fit. I make sure to water it every day (unless it's raining). So far so good. Hopefully it will produce berries, but it's too early in the season yet! This thing works - the only trouble is getting the plants in, you must be very, very careful. I'm only a 2nd year gardener, so I think anyone can use this if they just follow instructions, demonstrate a little patience, remember to water it! Take care, and good luck growing strawberries!!!

I have a small garden out on my balcony, and I was pretty excited to try this product. Based on the pictures, it looked like one pot would hold a dozen strawberry plants. While I was waiting for this pot to arrive, I purchased a dozen starter strawberry plants from a local plant shop. However, the product I received was not the one pictured. It was a cheap knock-off. Instead of having a dozen holes like pictured, the pot I received only had THREE. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until my boyfriend had already filled the Topsy Turvy with soil, which meant that I could not return it. When I purchased this planter, it said that it was sold by Overstock_Deals and that the order was "fulfilled by Amazon". If you are hoping to get the product pictured, you should look closely at who is actually selling the product and ask them to verify that the planter you are buying is the same one that is pictured. Given that I had a bunch of extra strawberry plants, I decided to compare how the strawberries would do in the Topsy Turvy as opposed to standard pots. First off, the Topsy Turvy requires a LOT of potting soil. It took an entire bag of soil to fill it up. The plants that were placed in the Topsy Turvy wilted within a day of being repotted. It has been about three weeks now, and one of the plants has died completely, one plant is still sickly looking and slightly wilted, and one one plant has sprung back and looks healthy. Neither of the two surviving plants has started to flower yet. With the Topsy Turvy, I find it really difficult to keep the soil moist. The thing leaks like a sieve, so every time I water the plants, it seems like most of the water just rushes out the bottom. Also, it is very hard to make sure the plants get enough sun. Since the planter is round, the plant towards the back only gets partial sun, and that is the one that died. By comparison, the plants I have in normal pots are doing very well. They are flowering and I have even gotten a couple strawberries from them. Honestly, even if I had received one of the pots pictured (one with 12 spots for plants instead of just 3), I think I would still be disappointed given how poorly my plants in the Topsy Turvy have done. I would never purchase a Topsy Turvey for strawberries again. I wanted to mention that when I contacted Amazon about my problem with this planter, they did give me a 25% refund, no questions asked. I still feel like this planter was a big waste of time and money, but I do think it was decent of Amazon to give me a partial refund even though I could not return the product.

Used to plant tomatoes, like that I can hang the tomatoes off the ground. So no bugs on the plants

We have been using these for years and they perform as described. We hang flowers from them and they generally do well. We do have to replace these after 2-3 years of use however as the Hole supports often break off and the color of the bag fades. The bag itself has never failed us and watering plants is easy ... from the top. As with all basket type plant holders, I do recommend using water gel crystals in the soil to reduce the amount of watering needed .... all baskets will dry in hot weather and these water crystal gels store water in the soil to provide moisture for a while till you can water.

all the extra holes . . for extra strawberries. I truly believe if you filled all 10 to 12 holes you would over compromise the soil. And if you don't use all of them, the water leaks out. This would get five stars if it had less holes for water to flow out of. I have bought the tomato planter for years with great success. This strawberry one so far is doing well. So long as I water the HECK out of it. There are strawberries already popping and the size of the plant so far is still growing . . . I think the system works but would work better with fewer holes. One reviewer implied that it only had five or so holes . . . it has double that. So if you were to fill the whole planter, plan on buy like 9 to 10 plants. But again I think the root systems would be competing for nutrients.

There is no "flavor" just the turvy bag. This container is sturdy and still holding up very well after about a month of use. This does get heavy so make sure you place it on a well supported hook. We have strawberries and tomatoes in ours, so far the tomatoes are growing more abundantly. The strawberries planted in a regular pot seem to be growing larger than the turvy strawberries. The oreder came quick with no troubles.