Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing threw this out there Friday:

Have you used an upside-down tomato planter?

Have you used an upside-down tomato planter? I moved last year and I don't have as much space for a garden as I used to have, so I am considering getting a few upside-down tomato planters. If you have used them, please share your experience in the comments!

So far, 97 commenters have chimed in. It's hard to tell whether the culprit is product, process or or prowess, but a lot of fruiting failures were reported.

Some gardeners got into a fight with their plants, which wanted to grow up towards the light, as is plants' wont.

An informed comment:

We use them, you need to be careful to add more soil later in the season (before they fruit really) and be careful to water exactly as directed and fertilize as directed or the fruit will be not as tasty. It works well, the plants get bigger then you expect, but you have to be careful to tend to them. I think cherry tomatoes or smaller tomatoes work better, but that's me.

Karen Youso, the consumer reporter at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, did a test of a Topsy Turvy vs. a homemade version vs. in the ground, using the same tomato variety in the same sun exposure. She found mixed results overall, but there are some good details in her article.

If you want get even more informed, one mentioned seeing them at a nursery "and they looked great, basil on the top, tomatoes on the bottom. You should stop by & ask them how well they work."

But this was my favorite:

Can't see the point of these.

Each year I grow more tomatoes than my wife and I can eat in two 8 inch hanging baskets, each with three plants in. Choose a small bush variety like 'Tumbling Tom' or 'Gartenperle', water well every day and feed with a proper tomato feed every other day when the fruits have set and you should have loads of fruit.

The blog post stirs the juices, and the comments make fascinating reading in our unusually springlike March weather.

I bought three seed packets of peas yesterday, my rites of spring.