Tomato growth using Wall o Water

[GrannieAnnie]

The increased growth and sturdiness of the tomato plant ("Prudens Purple") on the right which was put outside April 12 in pitiful condition from some cold nights in the cold frame. It looked so bad I decided to try it outside in the Wall O' Water and if I lost it it wouldn't be much of a loss. I wanted to see if the tubes filled with water would have any benefit. The two toms to the left are the same variety  also suffered in the cold frame but not tossed out quite so early. Their development has been slower and their stems are half the diameter of the one on the right. Night temps often were in the 40s F.
Have any of you given wall o' water a try? I'm sorry now I didn't make a more scientific study out of it.

[GrannieAnnie]

[Sinbad7]

I'd never heard of it until I just googled it.

Looks a brilliant idea Grannie.

Sinbad

[Jeannine]

I used these a lot when in Canada and had great success with them, they really do absorb the daytime warmth , The only downside |I found was the cost especially if you needed a good few.

They are available in the UK now.

XX Jeannine

[caroline7758]

Or here's a DIY version

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lab/msg0516363918431.html

[GrannieAnnie]

Or here's a DIY version

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lab/msg0516363918431.html

The price of the DIY version is excellent. Thank you for posting. Next year I'll try to do a scientific comparison with a control group.

[star]

Wow I never heard of wall of water, what a great idea. Will give it a try in August for my peppers and chillis, going on the current trend of British summers I might really need to ;D ;D ;D

Seriously I will try that next year......thanks GA for posting, and Caroline for the link ;)

[Deb P]

I remember one of Bob Flowerdews books recommending the filled bottles around sweetcorn method for protecting it when it is first planted out, he also suggested using one bottle in the group as a slow watering device by making a small hole on the side at near the base. Also recommended car tyres around the base of young peach trees to keep them snug!

[GrannieAnnie]

One other consideration- some research says using red plastic  encourages more growth hormones in tomatoes and some other vegies. I'm eager to see how it goes this year- last year was my first with red plastic as a ground cover and we had a bumper crop of tomatoes. But, the weather was also perfect (for us, sadly not for the UK from what you've written.)  The wall o water is red also. I'm going to keep written records of the # of tomatoes from each plant and see how it turns out. Some are growing under black plastic.

[caroline7758]

Maybe another use for my plastic milk bottles? Can someone tell me what the theory is behind this idea? Not sure if I'm being thick here!

[GrannieAnnie]

Maybe another use for my plastic milk bottles? Can someone tell me what the theory is behind this idea? Not sure if I'm being thick here!

The water heats up during the day and releases the heat at night for awhile.

[Rosa_Mundi]

Not tomatoes, but I have heard that growers of lemons in areas where the climate is dry but nights are cold stack rocks around the trunks of their trees. These heat up in the day and release the heat at night, so very much the same idea.