Subject: Re: Wall-o-Water (for tomatoes)

From: [email-masked] (Hank Roberts)
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 18:43:59 GMT

In <psmith.726343485@cunews> [email-masked] (Peter Smith) writes:

>Wall-O-Water, Kozy Coats ... call them what you will.  I'm curious
>about these tomato plant outdoor wraps that are filled with water in
>order to allow earlier transplanting, and faster yield.

>Have people had good experiences with them.  In particular:

>1) how much earlier did you get a yield

>2) any precautions

>3) what else are they used on (eg: peppers, early melons, ...)

>Thanks in advance

My old friend Dick Fugett has used them for years and consistently has
the earliest edible tomato in his area.  I've crossposted this to alt.co-
evolution because it's something that CoEvolution Quarterly recommended
years ago and I even sold for a while.  Wall-o-water works very well to
extend the cold-hardiness.

---

From: [email-masked] (Rob Thacker local login)
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 20:42:11 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Hank Roberts) writes:
|> In <psmith.726343485@cunews> [email-masked] (Peter Smith) writes:
|> 
|> >Wall-O-Water, Kozy Coats ... call them what you will.  I'm curious
|> >about these tomato plant outdoor wraps that are filled with water in
|> >order to allow earlier transplanting, and faster yield.
|> 
|> >Have people had good experiences with them.  In particular:
|> 
|> >1) how much earlier did you get a yield
|> 
|> >2) any precautions
|> 
|> >3) what else are they used on (eg: peppers, early melons, ...)
|> 
|> >Thanks in advance
|> 
|> My old friend Dick Fugett has used them for years and consistently has
|> the earliest edible tomato in his area.  I've crossposted this to alt.co-
|> evolution because it's something that CoEvolution Quarterly recommended
|> years ago and I even sold for a while.  Wall-o-water works very well to
|> extend the cold-hardiness.

I tried the wall-o-water on my tomatoes last year, and I wasn't
too impressed.  I did the following experiment:

   Three tomato plants were planted in the spring (in the Ottawa area).
   All plants were the "Siberian" cold-tolerant variety (around 55 days
   to maturity), and each was 8 weeks old and was flowering WHEN PLANTED
   outside.  Call the plants A, B, and C.  The weather was cool for
   April, and warm and dry for May, but the nighttime lows were never
   below -3 or -4 C.  The garden was dug and prepared the previous fall.

   "A" was planted mid-April, after trying to warm the soil up with the
   wall-o-water.  This didn't work too well, since there was still
   a little ice in the planting hole (too much frozen soil around the
   hole keeping it cool -- it may have been better to try and warm the
   entire garden with plastic or something).  The wall-o-water was used
   for "A", until late May.
   "B" was planted late April, in cool, but not frozen soil.  The
   wall-o-water was used on B until late May.
   "C" was planted early to mid May, when the soil had warmed up a
   little, and frosts were light.  C was NOT protected.

   C beared ripe fruit in mid June, with A and B bearing ripe fruit
   about two weeks AFTER that.  "A" did suffer some frost or cold
   damage despite being protected with wall-o-water, but it didn't
   seem to affect it bearing fruit at the same time as "B".  Note
   that earlier planting resulted in later fruit!  (Despite the
   plants being the same age when set outside.)  The cold April
   may have skewed (slightly) the results a bit more against
   wall-o-water, than an average April would.

I realize that one experiment isn't too significant, but IMHO it is
better to plant warm crops when the weather has warmed up.  If you
want to try to get earlier fruit, get special varieties and grow them
indoors a little longer (until they flower).