What are some opinions on "Wall-O-Water"s? r
 

I've found my local, small town hardware store has "wall-o-water" s on the shelf that I can buy and avoid the shipping cost of buying them from a catalog. I live in NE Indiana which has cold winters and unpredictable Springs so I would love to get a head start. Does this product really give you a 4 to 6 week head start like it advertises? It claims to protect down to 16 degrees F. I would like the advantage of other's results before I get to optimistic. Thanks in advance.
Al:|

I got some on sale years ago. I think they work don't know about 16 degrees. I don't use them that early. I have planted in March and got a head start. I put some sticks inside the wall of water in a tepee shape to hold them up. At first I close them up pretty tightly at the top and as it gets warmer I spread out the top so the plant gets more air. After frost and cool nights are past, I slip them off before the tomato gets too big and then I protect the plant with something for a day or so. The part of the plant in the wall of water is used to protection from the wind. I use them for a few early plants; they are not that easy to fill and place but fine for a few plants.

[QUOTE=matilda'skid;196118]I got some on sale years ago. I think they work don't know about 16 degrees. I don't use them that early. I have planted in March and got a head start. I put some sticks inside the wall of water in a tepee shape to hold them up. At first I close them up pretty tightly at the top and as it gets warmer I spread out the top so the plant gets more air. After frost and cool nights are past, I slip them off before the tomato gets too big and then I protect the plant with something for a day or so. The part of the plant in the wall of water is used to protection from the wind. I use them for a few early plants; they are not that easy to fill and place but fine for a few plants.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, I tend to be overly enthusiastic and I'll add your experience to try and temper my natural inclinations.:)

Used them many years ago when I had only a few plants and agree with what Matilda posted. Mine began to grow algae in the tubes and were hard to clean. Then they began to leak and I had to buy replacement tubes. Got tired of the hassle because they didn't really gain me that much in terms of early harvest. The plants didn't freeze but also didn't grow much when the ground and air was still so cold.
Have to add that some people really seem to be happy with how they work, though. YMMV.

hi Al,

They work, but the soil needs to be warm as well. We use them on the farm here and get to market a month ahead of anyone else. And I still have some of the original ones I was given 15 years ago, so they'll last. They will not protect down to 16 without additional cover, however.
( I hope someone still has a link to the famous WOW under the snowbank trial)

Lee

Al, I didn't mean to discourage you. Ask lee for details because there are tricks to filling them and keeping them from falling over. You also need to know when to take them off. My Sun Gold got too big and I just left the wall of water on and cut it off at the end of the season. I usually take them off and reuse them other seasons. I may do something with the one I cut off the SG but if they are not out in the sun all season they can be used again and again. I have heard of putting a drop of bleach in the tubes to stop the algae. Where they are useful is in climates that have a nice warm spring with threats of frost and cool spells. I have nice warm days in April but it can frost here up until past the first week in May. I have used them on half a dozen plants and planted the rest later after danger of frost. The plant can out grow them and poke out the top (Sun Gold) in that case throw a sheet over the plant when frost threatens. Even if the tops burn, you still have a good root system ready to grow when ever it gets warm. If it were 16 degrees very long the water in the tubes would freeze.

Wall O water is simply a cloche by another name. If you have a couple of five gallon buckets with holes in the bottom, simply cut the bottom out and put a peice of clear plastic-glass over the top. Do the cover up at night, open top in morning.

Will it add four extra weeks? A few years out of ten, yes. Is it a good defence against hail? More so.

With all due respect, theoretically the WOWs should be more protective than a simple cloche. If in fact frost threatens, as the water freezes in the Wows, heat is released. How much I do not know, or whether it is significant enough to provide protection down to a certain temperature. I do know that in the distant past (when I only planted a half dozen tomatoes) a severe frost of -9 C blackened/killed all growth above the Walls, but inside all was well. And as Matilda's kid posted above, they recovered quickly and put out new growth.

I used them last year - some plants I got from one nursery were so huge, I needed to get them planted early. They worked for me.
To fill them you put a tall bucket outside down over the plant. Then, put the WOW around the bucket and fill it, and then pull the bucket out.
I put a few stakes inside them too.
When we did have a really cold night, I put a 2-liter pop bottle with hot water inside, just for extra warmth.
I got tomatoes earlier than usual.

Here are some of mine out in the garden last spring. Or I should say they are under those reflective cones. The plants made it through fine.

:shock: Yikes, after reading all these posts, please disregard everything I said earlier. It's quite obvious that I didn't try to push the envelope NEARLY hard enough. The water in mine never even came close to freezing. :oops:
kath

Would it be easier to just make a low tunnel or a cold frame? Sure seems it. Plus I don't like the fact that the tops are open to the elements. But like the idea of a little thermal mass they provide. Seems like the idea needs to be improved on.

You can just fill the tubes 1/2 - 2/3 of the way at first, and the tops will be closed. Then, as it warms up and the plants are bigger, add some more water and they open up.

The differences are protection or a smaller heated area...WOW makes a microclimate 24-7.

Buckets and styrofoam and frames are not radiating heat at night and if so they are not transferring stored heat from water molecules.

My usual plant out date around here is May 15th, I used the WOW and planted out a few cherries to test them on April 15th. I chose cherries just because they are so productive for me that if they didn't work I wouldn't be devastated to lose a few of them. They worked just fine and I wished I had been brave enough to try it with a big beefsteak. Didn't use them again last year only because I can't remember where I put them!