Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - What are some opinions on "Wall-O-Water"s? r

austinnhanasmom · January 29, 2011

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.

January 29, 2011	#20
austinnhanasmom Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Z5, CO near Denver Posts: 225	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.