Is it bad for vegetable plants (tomatoes) to be tilted/angled in a vertical-planter?

Question

I bought a 4 store-planter (like this one but with 4) for my "urban garden", and I thought I could incline the planters at whichever angle I wanted. I hope the word planter is the correct one, as it is the literal translation to my language. But it seems there are only 2 kinds: straight (90º), or inclined either one way or another. I calculated the angle (approximately), and it is 60º. I've been researching but I haven't found out anything that says: NO DON'T. I've seen this answer, but there is no specifics about inclination, more like positioning in a square format.

If I itend to plant tomato plants and pepper plants, Is it better to leave it straight (90º) or inclined? The intented position of the whole structure will be indoors, but facing a window, so that's why I thought about inclining it, to get more and better light. But I am concerned about once the plants grow larger, if the weight will be too much if inclined and make the plants have less stability.

Answer 1

You seem to assume that the plants will grow in the direction of the planter‘s slant. However, the plants will be only marginally be influenced by that and instead grow in the direction the light prompts them to.

Under ideal lighting conditions, plants will grow straight up ¹, of there is a window to the side, they will lean towards that, especially if light (=energy source) is scarce. You could even slant the planter and initially the plants away from the window and they would ultimately still bend towards the light source.

The slanting function of these planters is helpful for smaller, more compact plants and easier accessibility (especially if you are using the stacked tiers) and/or to guide trailing plants towards one side. The physics of draining a slanted planter have been discussed in another answer.

For your tomato plants, I recommend the following:

• tomatoes on average tend to grow quite high (they are vine-like in the wild), so pick a cultivar that’s labeled „dwarf“ or „for pots“ or „for small balconies“ or something like that. Read the description carefully, you want something that stays very compact or even one for hanging baskets. The „regular“ kind won’t work too well in your setup. Even the smaller kinds may need some kind of support/trellis and pruning, especially indoors. Also the volume of the tiers is best for smaller tomatoes, for larger plants you’d need especially good water and fertilizer management.
• Ensure the best lighting you can manage. Tomatoes are sun-hungry and will etiolate (grow excessively thin and lanky in search of light) quickly. You still may have to prune them a bit.

Then ultimately the slant of the tiers won’t matter much. I would probably use the planter with the tiers slanted, but only because it would give the plants a bit more light initially.

For peppers, pretty much the same applies as for tomatoes. Chili peppers would be ideal, but there are dwarf versions of sweet peppers available too.

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¹ On average. Of course there are plants that are naturally trailing or creeping on the ground. But even they will orient themselves towards the available light source.

Answer 2

If you tilt the boxes when you water it will pool at the lowest point and leave some of the root zone without adequate water.

To promote more light the plants should be closer to the window, draw back the curtains or provide additional light from LED's or similar