Dont meen to rain on yer parade, but that topsy turvy thing is notorious for having bad results growing anything.

@shoontok sorry but not very helpful, refer to the part where i mentioned the bushels of peppers i got out of it last year. if you have any specific ideas to my problem here, i'm all ears.

I don't think you are doing anything wrong specifically except that the topsy turvy planter technically fries the roots of the plants. I have had similar experiences with them, and when I could not water them twice a day (minimum) they fried up real quickly. I'd take anything that's still alive and plant it in a pot.

Yep, Topsy Turvy (and similar) is crap whenever I've seen them used.
I'd do what Simsedward recommends.

Otherwise, move the planter into some dappled sun/shade.
Also, that's a lot of plants in a small volume of soil. Perhaps not enough moisture
or room for the roots of all the plants. Could be that the drooping plants are just weaker
than the others, too.

Josh

I agree. There is so little soil around all those roots and many of the roots are along outside of the soil and exposed to the heat (and quick drying soil) around the edges. Too much heat and they could easily cook and die off, just leaving the roots throughout the interior of the soil to nourish the plants. Your experience last year might have been a result of a more mild and less extreme weather. My guess is that on those 90+ degree sunny days, if you dig to the middle of the soil in one of those things, you will find it to be quite warm, maybe even hot by soil standards. Dig down 6" into a garden and I would bet the temp of that soil would be 10+ degrees cooler than the topsy turvy interior temp.

In this area last summer we had some real scorching days, ones which surely top the few hot ones from a few weeks ago. I don't hate on the topsy turvy, though I do acknowledge its limitations, and I figure it's my fault in some way. Mainly I'm glad to confirm (i hope) that the symptoms I describe are indicative of root cookage / die-off (as opposed to something worse). I am figuring I planted them a little too densely this year - as I mentioned, last year I had only a little over half as many plants stuffed in the thing (only a couple ports were double-planted, as opposed to this year where only a couple of the ports are single-planted).

I did an experiment tonight and tugged on the one Jalapeno plant which I figure was worse off, and with a little effort it slid out of the planter, without much root system left (i figure a bunch sheared off as I pulled it out, of course). I'm gonna try to revive it if possible planted in some damp soil, and if I can get the roots back I'll replant it in a standing pot.

I appreciate the advice so far; I'm not giving up on the Topsys yet - the results still outpace the drawbacks - the only viable planting space I have is my deck so my options are very limited. Even if the jalapenos go down the tubes, I still have a bunch of unflinching plants growing and fruiting for me :)

PS - I am starting to experiment a bit more with traditional potted planters - I'm getting great growth so far from a pair of tomato plants planted in a 13" planter with a water-reservoir bottom (a Big Boy and a Goliath Hybrid, both storebought). Both plants have withstood the hottest days without much of a problem - I fill the reservoir up to full in the morning, and by the evening it's dry but the soil is still nicely moist. I'll gladly accept any hints or other peoples' findings on this style (i'm also browsing the forum and reading what others are saying).

For your peppers, i would not use the reservoir bottoms on the containers. I drilled extra holes in mine right at the very bottom of them to let even them drain out. Peppers dont like continuous wet soil and by the end of the summer, your peppers will likely have a good bunch of roots all the way to the bottom of those containers. It probably doesn't matter too much since the roots would just quit growing below the water line where the soil is continuously wet. I dont think it would cause any disease problems for the rest of the plant. I just like to be able to better control the soil dampness and this year, I am real glad. After a scorching hot start to June, it has been cool and wet the last couple weeks. I haven't watered in about three weeks and the soil is quite wet now and more rain is on the way. Had there been an inch or two of water in the reservoir, it would have make the soil that much more saturated which peppers dont really like. We have some nice moderate sunny weather slated for late this week into next week so I am hoping my peppers get a growth spurt and maybe a ripe pod or two by July 4th.

Keep us updated on how that pepper plant does that you yanked from the topsy. It will be interesting to know if you can bring it back from it's death bed. I suggest you keep it in damp but not "wet" soil and probably mostly in shade for a week or so. Treat it like a seedling you have to harden off.

Great advice!

Josh

@esox:
thanks for the advice again. At the moment I only have 2 young pepper plants in a reservoir-bottom pot, and I'm being careful to fill the reservoir only with as much water as will leave the bottom dry by the end of the day. Since my deck has full-sun exposure, I'm nervous to let the soil drain completely out, because they could get dangerously dry. I am trying to avoid giving them root rot, though. It's an experiment for me at this point; the problem once again is that my options are really limited.

So far the Jal plant I pulled out of the topsy is doing okay in a drinking glass (!) filled with moist potting soil. I'm leaving it inside on my windowsill where it gets the most late-afternoon sun. The funny thing is, today when I got home to the planter, the other 2 jal plants still in the TT were both a lot healthier. Maybe I got the thing back down below critical mass? lol. I'll try to keep you updated.

Also above the jalapeno plants there is a double-planted port with 2 cayenne plants growing, and currently fruiting rapidly with its first round. Nothing's red yet but I have one deep-green cayenne maybe 5 inches long now and just starting to get wrinkly. A bunch of smaller ones around it. Exciting! But I'm mostly looking forward to my first Habs, which are still small babies at the moment.

I know what you mean about using the TT because of space. That's why I used them at my old house. I had a very small yard and a little garden patch in the ground. I used topsy turvy for a few extra plants, but I had limited success. If you have the time and patience to keep them watered and checked twice/three times a day, you might be ok. Sounds like you just had them stuffed to capacity. Good luck - I hope you get some hot peppers out of this ordeal!

If anyone was curious for an end-of-season followup on this -- it turns out the TT plants were MOSTLY very productive. I had 2-each of: habs, caribbean reds, long cayennes, and serranos, which were all very decent producers. The jalapeno plant that "survived" did something very funny, and produced me a batch of peppers about the width of a jalapeno but MUCH too short, giving me a bunch of ripe peppers that were perfectly marble-shaped (huh? i'm guessing malnutrition). The one jalapeno plant that had "died", which I ripped out and re-rooted in a glass of water, ended up being planted in its own pot later, ended up being VERY prolific, and yielding a ton of jalapenos. Go figure. I am now planning to try to overwinter that plant. Next year I will be planting in a topsy again (i got a new one for 5 bux at home depot), but this time I will only plant one plant in each port :-P

FWIW: the habaneros (regular and caribbean reds) were probably the most prolific thing in this planter. I ended up with loads and loads of these puppies, so much that I was filling my dehydrator and stuffing more into jars with vinegar to preserve, while also inventing a weird sweet mango-habanero sauce with a whole load of the regular (smaller) habs. If anyone had any reservations about growing some habs in a topsy turvy, even with full sun exposure - as long as it can be watered well enough (every freaking day), they'll do just fine.