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Old March 14, 2009   #2
habitat_gardener
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: California Central Valley
Posts: 2,539
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I finally planted my seeds today! I have room for 12, usually fit in 18-20, but planted 42 tomato varieties and 6 pepper varieties. I did need to test my saved seeds for germination, and I figure I can give away plants. I built a bubblewrap greenhouse around them, and surrounded it with gallons of water. Nighttime temperatures have been in the 30s this week, and are expected to be in the 40s next week, so I'll have to get to the garden each morning to open up the bubblewrap, then close it up at night.

I also planted a Caspian Pink seedling this week. Usually I plant a few too early and use walls-o-water to protect them, graduating to bubblewrapped cages when they get over a foot high. Last year, my CP was almost 4 ft. high when I removed the bubble wrap on April 17, because I needed it for smaller plants and thought the CP was big enough to fend for itself. It wasn't. When I went back to my garden a couple days later, most of it had frozen. I don't think the temperatures got below freezing, but we have windy afternoons and the wind chill did it in. All the tomatoes that had plastic-wrapped cages, even if they were open to the sky, were fine. It eventually recovered enough to produce 2 tomatoes, so I saved seeds, but when I saw one at the garden center I couldn't resist.

Last year was an odd year for tomatoes. Even though I planted early with WOWs, I had hardly anything before August, and none of the cherry tomato plants produced much. But I've used WOWs other years, and in 2007 I had tomatoes from 9 out of 16 varieties in June. That year, I was out in the wind and rain all of March and April, securing the stakes and redoing the plastic and bubble wrap, and it turned out to be worth it.

One more thing: The only possible problem with WOWs is that when the weather warms up in the daytime, the tubes of water become mosquito germination chambers. So when you see the little larvae swimming around, just fold back the top. By then, it should be warm enough for the seedling. I've also tried putting netting or screen material over them, but it's easier to fold over the edges. THe other thing is that weeds also like the added heat.

I know someone who leaves the WOWs all season, since we have relatively cool summers. I tried that one year with Black Krim, and it worked ok, but it was harder to use a cage, and once the tomato plant leafed out, harder to go after weeds.

I've also tried WOWs with other vegetables, especially cucurbits. I learned it's not worth starting cucumbers and summer squash early here, because a later start avoids the first generation of squash bugs and cucumber beetles. I've seen no squash bugs and hardly any cucumber beetles since I started putting out cucurbits later! Also, cucurbits seem to be more susceptible to molds when there's limited air circulation.

Last edited by habitat_gardener; March 14, 2009 at 03:35 AM.
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