I'm wondering about solar bubble pool covers as frost protection...

[home_grown]

Where I live the weather is unpredictable, especially this year, and I don't feel like buying a very big bunch of walls of water or kozy coats or whatever you call them, so I've thought about bubble wrap for frost protection around the cages of young plants... but that could get very expensive too. Then I thought about solar bubble pool covers and thought maybe this could really work for spring and fall protection. On more than one site I've read that you get 15 degrees for pools, so I'm wondering if anyone has tried this kind of stuff to drape over caged tomato plant plants. If it would work, it seems it would be an easier and more economical means of frost protection. Here's one place that sells it if you don't know what I'm talking about... http://www.solarcovers.com/shop/solar-covers and here's another at Sam's club... http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/pr...sku=sku1525659
Any opinions from more experienced growers than yours truly would be greatly appreciated!!!
Thank you in advance.
Linda

[cornbreadlouie]

I dunno if it would make much of a difference, but if you surround the plants with a bunch of beer bottles full of water in addition to the pool cover, that would probably keep them a bit warmer. Ghetto wall o waters.

[Wi-sunflower]

There wouldn't be a real big temp jump as when the cover is actually in contact with the water as on a pool. Maybe 2-4 degrees max IMO.

Here is a cheesy page on my own web site with info on how to make a relatively cheap protection for early planting.
http://knapps-fresh-vegies.netfirms.com/tips.html

My neighbor used CRW cages with a t-post to anchor them and a method similar to this. He would have them wrapped til the middle to end of June, depending on the year, and by then the plants were growing out the tops of the cages.

Carol

[habitat_gardener]

Yes, the solar pool cover should work, but it still looks pretty expensive. Every so often someone on freecycle offers large sheets of bubble wrap -- that's my source.

I've started my tomatoes in a "cold frame" made from a cylindrical tomato cage placed horizontally, covered with bubble wrap, and surrounded by gallon water bottles. When they outgrow the cold frame, the 4-inch pots graduate to covered translucent plastic bins or to walls-o-water (wherever there's room).

Once they're planted out and grow above the tops of the walls-o-water, I bubble-wrap the cages. We can get rainstorms, windstorms, and cold nights into late April or early May, so the bubble wrap stays on until the middle of May.

I use clothespins to secure the bubblewrap to the tomato cages, and if a big storm is predicted, I loosely cover the tops as well so that the plants won't be pummeled by rain. The bubblewrap is especially effective in my climate because we have an afternoon wind that's often cold and that can dehydrate the plants. On days when it's too cold to stay outside in the wind (hey, I'm in California, 50F is cold here with a 10mph wind), it's warm and calm inside the wrapped cages. Also, nights aren't reliably above 50F until June or July (iirc, last year it was August).

I've scrounged a large collection of bubble wrap over the past few years, and when I run out I've used clear plastic bags or used the protection only on the windiest side.

I've experimented with wrapping single cages and groups of cages. My plants have done better with individually wrapped cages, and when I've put my hand inside the wrapped cages, the smaller ones were warmer.

[RebelRidin]

My DW uses floating solar cover on our above ground pool. She seems to be able to get an extra 3 to 4 degrees in her water temp but the pool walls have a 3/8" foam insulation under the liner too and she was the thermal mass of that water absorbing and storing that energy.

I am not sure you would see much better than regular plastic sheeting... especially if you added some water bottles under that sheeting...