Wondrous Walls of Water

Four weeks ago I set out my tomato seedings in boxes and protected them from the 20-degree nights with Walls-O-Water. The danger of freezing has passed (I hope), so today I set the tomato plants free. Hard to tell from the photos, but almost all of the plants have buds or blossoms. Promises to be a great crop, thanks to the Walls-O-Water. Can't wait for the first fruits.

we started using these this year too, have had them outside about a month probably ... not only do they insulate but they protect from the wind very well, which really for me is almost more of a burden than the temps right now with young fragile plants. your setup looks nice! does it get windy there? do you have plastic on the side facing the mountain?

with the wall-o-water when plants are small you tip it onto itself like a tent... but when they get bigger if you want you can pull it to stand upright so it's like a complete circle and the plant can comes out the middle.

made in america. they say they protect down to 16 degrees.. recommended! they sell them on amazon 3 for $12 (free ship when you spend 25). http://tinyurl.com/3uy6ov7

i find the wall-o-water to be nice because they're aesthetically decent to look @ too... this site has a "homemade" version using 7 two liter bottles. i don't know how this looks because there isn't a picture but i imagine it's not as nice as the wall-o-water in appearance, but he touts it's a benfit that you can add more bottles to make the circle larger around as the plants get bigger, and remove every other bottle to harden the plants when ready to remove - http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... tml?cat=32

dddane wrote:does it get windy there? do you have plastic on the side facing the mountain?

This time of year it can get extremely windy. In fact, as I was removing the walls, a strong wind came up. Each seedling was loosely staked. It is also extremely dry here right now, but none of the plants suffered any kind of wind damage or dying-out. I did mist them a few times per day for the first couple of days.

No plastic needed, but I do have screens around the planters to protect from hail damage - my entire crop was pretty much wiped out a few years ago from a storm that knocked off all the blooms and many leaves.

BTW, when I still had the walls in place and the temp went into the teens one night, I simply placed a rubber band around the upper portion of the wall to fully close it. In the morning, I removed the band so the plant could breath.

I'm a bit mystified about how this product works. Air is a better insulator (hence, poorer conductor) than water. It seems to me that to prevent plants from freezing, you'd be better off enclosing them in an air-filled container than in a water-filled container. What am I missing?

Katie wrote:I'm a bit mystified about how this product works. Air is a better insulator (hence, poorer conductor) than water. It seems to me that to prevent plants from freezing, you'd be better off enclosing them in an air-filled container than in a water-filled container. What am I missing?

Water has a much higher thermal mass and is able to store much more energy than air. All day long the water absorbs heat from the sun. At night the wall insulates plants from the colder outside air as would an air-filled container, but, more importantly, it returns the stored heat into the air, maintaining a warmer temperature around the plants.

Ah, that makes sense. The water warms up during the day. Thanks.

i think it's more that the water holds the temp overnight because air would nearly instantly lose the stored energy...?

this week is a great example of the use of these. the plants in these have no idea that we have such crappy weather.... well, assuming they were already out before this week

over the weekend i brought out two more plants, one with a wall and one without. both are completely in shock and probably wont make it... i cant' decide if i should put them inside until the weekend is over (i actually have indoor lights for them) to give them proper conditions, or let them harden up and potentially die.. though that may be too late :/