Wall-o-Water Question

I am getting ready to order the Wall-o-Waters over the internet. For about $10.00 it says I get one with 3 protective slips. So, do I get ONE cage, and then the 3 slips are like replacement slips? Need to know so that I order enough.

Karrie

Karrie, usually they're around $10.00 for three. You may want to contact them to ask what the 3 slips are.

Horseshoe was nice enough to send me some Wall-O-Waters and I used them last Spring. Since it was so rainy my tomatoes didn't do very well. The directions on mine say to put the walls up and then put your transplants in. My arms are not that long so I planted them first and then put the walls up. I'm hoping I'll have better luck this Spring.

It probably means one package contains 3 each.

elsie, I used mine like you did, put the plants in the ground, then set up the wall 0 waters afterwards. It was much easier that way.

You're right...if the weather is not sunny the walls don't work very well. The sun must come out to warm the water, thereby giving protection to the plants at night. If the days offer no sun, there will be no protection offered at nite (except maybe as a wind barrier).

Shoe, you're so right. I wasn't thinking about no sun. The plants in the walls turned moldy from all the rain, they never got a chance to dry out. Luckily I only planted five plants - only one survived. I wonder if you covered the top with plastic to prevent further rain would help any?

Ha I thought I was the only one who didn't follow directions. I saw myself headfirst in the wall-w-water if I tried to plant them afterwards.

Directions? We don't need no stinkin' directions (*snicker*....)

I guess I never bothered to READ the directions, cuz when I used my Wall o'waters I always placed them over an already-planted plant, lolol. I gave mine away when we moved several years ago. I've debated with myself on getting some new ones - anyone have opinions on the clear-vs-red-vs-green 'uns????

Terry,

I have heard the red ones do best of tomatoes. There is more than one brand out there, and one of the brands only comes in green.

Hmm...elsie, I think that's a great idea, putting a 'roof' over the plants during times of excess rain. Seems like it would sure help.

I've only had the greenish colored WOWs. Couldn't say much about success with the other colors.

I agree with Horseshoe - it would just give it a greenhouse effect, by having a roof over it.

There are lots of pluses (+++) for using cloches (plastic walls-of-waters) in ones garden. There are some reasons why:

1. Extends your growing season.
2. Warms the soil surrounding your plants.
3. Keeps frost off your plants.
4. The "walls-of-water" absorb the heat of the sun.
5. At night, the heat is re-radiated toward the plants.
6. Therefore, your plants grow better and are able to
survive early Spring temperatures that aren't usually condusive to growing warm season plants, such as tomatoes, eggplants and peppers.
7. Green vs. red "walls-of-water": Lots of studies have proven that red mulch spread over the soil in your vegetable garden actually produces an earlier crop of vegetables than the normal black plastic. The same principle holds true with green vs. red "walls-of-water".
Yes, the green ones work very well (see all the reasons stated above), but the red walls-of-water actually speed up the entire process, thereby producing earlier crops and larger yields!!
8. Be the 1st person in your neighborhood to be able to eat delicious & healthy veggies from your garden!!!

Here are some links that will give you more information on the "walls-of-water" and the advantages of using red vs. the green ones.

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/1998/980116.htm
http://www.superseeds.com/watering.htm

I used the green ones 2 years ago and my tomatoes grew like crazy things while the WOW's were on. The directions said to leave them on until the plant grew out the top. So I did. When I took them off I put wire cages over the plants. Everything looked fine. Then right away we got a cool spell, not the kind of temperatures tomatoes like for sure. Unseasonably cool. It was enough to set them back so much that they didn't do any more growing until several weeks after it warmed up, and I had very few ripe tomatoes that season. In hindsight I think I should have done a few things differently, like taking the WOW's off before the plant grew out the top, putting some plastic on the cages for wind protection, leaving the WOW's filled with water sitting between the plants for a few days to help moderate the temperature, watching to see what the weather was going to be like in the week after I took the WOW's off the plants. Last year I didn't use them at all and got better results.

Mary,

I think it is always good to protect your plants when unseasonable weather strikes. The Wall-0-Waters may help get them established early, but you never know what mother nature will bring, even in the summer time.

Karrie, your climate is a lot like mine, hot summers, dry air, wind, short growing season. We had -15 last week with howling wind and I was glad everything was under a good snow blanket. Today we had freezing fog with some sun breaks. I can set tomatoes out in the garden after June 1 with protection since the nights can be in the lower 30's and days up to 95.

WOW - you wait until June? Most of us here use Mother's Day as a rule of thumb. Never had any problems that way.

Actually, where I grow my tomatoes, is up against the house, on the Eastside, so they get pretty good wind protection and stay warm up against the rock foundation. My mators are still doing fine well into October - I'm sure it has alot to do with the location of the plants.

We got that real cold freeze last week too - think it got down to about a minus 12 or so here. So glad we had a little snow cover as well, as we haven't had alot of snow in the past few years.

It's all melting, and supposed to get to around 40 degrees today. Farmers Almanac says we are supposed to get alot of snow in February - but you never know. I just think it's a fun little book to read - cute stories.

Where is Baker City, OR? Is that near LaGrande? I grew up in Walla Walla, where it was much warmer than up here.

Karrie, Baker City is the next town down the freeway from LaGrande. We live 40 miles from LaGrande and 20 miles from Baker City out in the hills, nearest neighbors are 1/2 mile away and we can't see them. Our elevation is 3300 ft. I'm going to try to plant earlier this year and shelter the plants better. Every year is a bit different so it is always an experiment. Did you order the WOW's yet? I see them in stores every year for $9.99 for 3 of the green ones, haven't seen any red.

Mary,

I'm going to check at Northwest Seed & Pet first, before ordering them over the internet, as I still have plenty of time before planting outdoors. Been through LaGrande many times - very pretty area, in the Blue Mountains. Making me miss my hometown! :)

Karrie20x, I used to go to Northwest everytime I got to Spokane. Haven't been there for a couple of years. Actually haven't been down town Spokane, just to the airport.

We had a skiff of snow during the night, foggy with lovely frozen edges to all the leaves that were frozen onto the shrubs,, etc last fall, and now snowing again.

I just finished going through the Joy Creek catalog, during the time I'm sitting here waiting to be reconnected. Marked a few things as I still need to plant shrubs and small trees on the bank in my windbreak area.
Being disconnected is so provoking. The woman who is helping me with computer problems think it is a telephone problem. Donna

Northwest Seed & Pet is a good place to get general garden supplies, seeds & bulbs for a pretty good price. However, when I buy my annuals in the Spring, I go to "Liberty Park Florist & Nursery" - they have very high quality plants that just seem to do better than all the rest. Just thought I'd let you know about if you visit Spokane this Spring!

Park Seed Company has their "Kozy-Coats" (red colored Walls-of-Water) featured in their Seeds, Flowers and Vegetables catalogue. They are offering a package of 3 "Kozy-Coats" for $9.95. They also have packages of 6 and 12 too. http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/TextSearch

That's a good price! Will check it out! Thanks Shirley!

I get an error with that link to Park Seed, Shirley. Here's a direct link to them: http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10066&langId=-1&mainPage=prod2working&ItemId=9260 (I hope!)

Thanks GW! I don't know why it wasn't workin' before, but I'm glad it is now! :~)

Their site is strange - search results bring up pages, but they don't go to the products' actual URL's. It's strange! They need Dave to do their site. :)

The error message happened to me too, because it timed itself out. So I went to their main page, and navigated to it from there.

It seems to be an intermittant problem with Parks' website...annoying, but you can still find it by doing a search under "Wall-of-Water" or "Kozy-Coats".

last year was the second year I used the wall-o-water. I planted approx 500 tomatoe plants using them, very time consuming. The only draw back I found is if it gets to hot it cooks the plant and the other thing is the plant is very weak when you take the wall o water off. I found that I usually get maters 3 weeks earlier. This year I will be using row covers over red and silver mulch.

David, my plants were very weak too, having been supported by the WOW. I put cages over mine as soon as the WOW was removed, a tricky operation when I only had 2 hands and could have used 3 more. I stood on the side of the plant where it wanted to go, let my legs support it while I set the WOW off to the side and got hold of the cage, then reached through the top of the cage with the other hand and took hold of the tomato plant and set the cage down around it. No plants broke off but it was kind of rough on the first few until I worked out a system. Placing a stake next to the plant and reaching down into the WOW to tie it up once or twice while it grew would have saved a lot of trouble.

Mary,how funny I had the same problem. It would of sure been nice to have 3 pairs of hands. I really think the row covers on plastic mulch is the solution. why I think this is the plant will have less stress and can use this cover for an insect barrior until that pesty leaf hopper has gone through the area. If your in oregon you have the same problem with that leaf hopper that we do "beet curly top virus" The leaf hopper hates shade.

I have seen little brown grasshopper looking leaf hoppers that are less than a quarter inch long but they have never been a problem, in fact I've had no bug problems with the tomatoes. My worst vegie garden bug problems are wasps in the strawberry patch, and aphids on the brocolli. I plan to use copious amounts of a homemade garlic, rubbing alcohol and ivory soap spray next year. I'm using it in my greenhouse now and it works.

Mary, your spray sound interesting. Can you give the ratio of each item in your solution. Just the 3 ingedients?

LimeyLisa Kay

I've been using the liquid from a jar of chopped garlic I got at the grocery store, about 2 tablespoons of that, about 1/4 cup of rubbing alcohol, about a teaspoon of ivory liquid soap and a pint of water. Peeeeeeu! Stinky stuff, don't breathe it unless you really need to clear your sinus passages!

Here's an alternative to wall-o-water that we like even better.

Jim Kennard

Jim,

I couldn't tell what that was.

Sorry, I should have had them covered with plastic! We call them "mini Greenhouses" and they are PVC plastic bent either into an arch or like a capital A with a 4" horizontal top. Covered with 6 mil greenhouse plastic they can extend your growing season by several weeks.

How's this - any better?

yes! much better! That's a great idea!