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

[erlyberd]

My transplants would never fit entirely inside the w-o-w anyway so I'm better off with the taller cold frames for my purposes. Plus, I could even heat them if needed, but don't ever plan on it. Just wondering how the w-o-w could protect plants to such low temps when the tops would be unprotected. Thats all.Whatever works for yah I guess. Seems like a good idea for storing thermal mass.

[barbamWY]

I have been using them since the old days when they were clear. I have tried using them the first part of April but the plants did not put on growth that early. So found it work best to wait until end of April. My average last frost is supossed to be May 15th but have gotten frost as late as June 10th. You can always throw a frost blanket over the top if there is a late frost. I use a piece of rebar inside the WOW's to keep them from collapsing. I remove them mid June, but be prepared to catch the tall plant and put a cage over it or some type of support. The plants are not able to stand by themselves if they are tall. The bounce back in a few days. I put a cattle panel down the middle of my 16 ft long raised beds and plant on both sides.
Barb

[Indyartist]

I appreciate all the input, my hardware store has 3 packages that I'm going to go pick-up (after this cup of tea) and I'll ask them if they will re-stock anytime soon so I'll see about getting more. They are 3 to a packages so I'll have 9 for sure and may buy more if they keep stocking them. I'm going to try and get at least 4 weeks out of them and I only have to decide how optimistic I am about how warm I think NE IN will be by our mid-May frost free date. I'm leaning on putting out tomatoes in late April and hoping to at least make up for the slow sickly look some of my plants have when it hasn't dropped cold enough to kill them but isn't warm enough to make them happy. I'm imaging taking them off in the first week of June having a measurable head start.

[kath]

Indyartist,
If you can remember, keep this thread going when you see how they actually work for you this year. I know I'd be interested in hearing how it goes.
kath

[austinnhanasmom]

I am a HUGE HUGE HUGE fan! I cannot imagine tomato gardening without them.

My peppers do not seem to appreciate the cold planting, so no more wasting my time with peppers and WOWs.

Our normal plant date is 5/15 and I can go 3/15 with WOWs, ripe tomatoes in June. Filling water teepees in March is generally not my favorite winter pass time, but in June, I'm always glad I did.

I bought oil funnels at Home Depot (longer neck) - mower maintenance section - and a 5 gallon bucket. I removed the bottom of the bucket, creating a tube.

I dig the planting hole, plant, place the bucket around the plant, centering, and then place the WOW around that. Fill the WOW tubes using the funnels and a hose with shut off nozzle. Lift the WOW to insure that all tubes received the same amount of filling and remove the bucket. I add bamboo around the plant to create another teepee and if the WOW collapses, the bamboo teepee protects the plant. Also, straw around the plant base helps with weeds. 3/4 full WOW tubes are better in the early season and then 100% full when the plants can be exposed to elements. When it's time to remove the WOWs, I pull out the bamboo teepee, carefully add the bucket/tube back into the WOW, if possible, and yank everything back up. I have just yanked the WOW up without the brace of the bucket, but the plant can get mangled.

Having two people of course makes it all easier, but I can do it alone. I had four helpers last year and if I have that many helpers again, I'll label my plants better, as the ids fell off and it was an i.d.ing mess. A wonderful mess, but I never did confidently id many tomato plants last year.

Last year, I could not find WOWs at a reasonable price, and I needed them ASAP, so I tried to make my own. I taped 4-5 gallon jugs of water to make a ring around the plant, then covered with row cover. The gallon jugs didn't seem to have enough height protection. Maybe 1L bottles would have worked better, but I'll stick to the WOW from now on.

[salix]

Austinnhanasmom has laid out very well the best way to use the WOWs (in my humble opinion - cuz that's the way I do it...). The mulching is important, because believe me the weeds really do also appreciate the comfy quarters. I just use a bucket upside down for protection while installing, filling and removing the WOWs. And it is important to remove the WOWs as soon as feasible, it can get quite"busy" down in there, and more chance of damage to a larger tomato during removal. Also, the less time they spend in the warm sunshine, the less algal growth to clean out.

[barbamWY]

I wanted to mention to save those old WOW's with holes and cut apart to save the good tubes. Slide them on your hoe handle and insert into the Wall O Waters that have sprung a leak.

[Indyartist]

Originally Posted by kath

Indyartist,
If you can remember, keep this thread going when you see how they actually work for you this year. I know I'd be interested in hearing how it goes.
kath

I will try Kath, I'm currently obsessed with everything and I love taking photos so I'll hope to keep a running bloggish type account.

[kath]

Originally Posted by Indyartist

I will try Kath, I'm currently obsessed with everything and I love taking photos so I'll hope to keep a running bloggish type account.

Ooo...that sounds good! And if I don't see something specific to WOW's, I'll ask- if I remember!

[erlyberd]

I'm only getting a 10 degree buffer with double protection, a low tunnel inside a high tunnel. At least when it was 30 degrees for the low anyway. I wonder how much if any more heat would be retained bt the WOW? Austin, Planting 2 months early sure seems like a stretch with only a WOW for protection. I'm I missing something here? Thanks.

[tam91]

When I went to remove the WOWs, I just squished a bunch of water out of it and then it was easier to pick up without hurting the plant.

[matilda'skid]

erlyberd, you are missing the high heat capacity of water. You should try a few and see if they work for you.

[simmran1]

Think of water filled tubes as insulators during the day and then as the sun goes down heat dissipation is the function- the temp remains more constant as night time temps cool. In our southern states, for that second planting the water will actually insulate the plants from the burning Texas sun during the day, but not cool rapidly at night.

I actually don’t use Wall ‘O Waters as season extenders – I use them as plant protectors to shield the tender seedlings. Curious birds and rabbits, gusty winds, cutworms, since I put down Diatomaceous earth around the inside at planting time.

i'm a WOWer. i can take advantage of a warm spell in spring, plant some tomatoes, set up WOWs, and then basically forget about them. no worries about that last blizzard we usually have late in May. no need to be watching out for late frosts and laying protectors at night and removing them in the morning everytime there's a warning.



i plant all the tomatoes in the ground first. then i set up a filling station outside but near the bed. i put a WOW on an overturned pail, turn on water, fill WOW tubes with water nonstop, turn water off, grab WOW by the top edge (same way when getting a WOW off a plant), quickly carry it to the bed and put over a plant. my best timing is 32 WOWs in 2 hours. the important part is to get comfortable and sit on a stool when filling up. difficult part is water is cold and can't really use gloves so hands hurt.

--meg

[matilda'skid]

Do all those have tomatoes in them and are they in the ground? They seem to be planted very close. I was just thinking of planting my early tomatoes close but not that close. Do you prune them or something so they will fit?