How to Make Your Own Wall-o-Water for Tomato Plants

Everyone wants to get his or her tomatoes in the ground as early as possible. Unfortunately, Mother Nature isn't always cooperative. With your own home made wall-o-water protectors, you can set tomato plants out weeks before the last frost.

I've tired commercial products for this and didn't like them for a variety of reasons. I never quite got the hang of filling them efficiently. One side always sagged or bulged dragging the wall-o-water to the ground in a heap, or toppled in onto my tomato plants. Once I managed to get them filled I found I had to peek in the top to check my tomato plants and I really couldn't do this very well.

The tomato plant grew well and obviously loved the additional heat the warm water supplied; however when it was time to remove the wall-o-water I faced yet another hassle. Emptying the pockets of water and removing the well-of-water was inconvenient and it suddenly exposed my tomato plants to the harsh outside environment without the benefit of being hardened off. This resulted in some plant damage from the wind and sun and my tomato plants suddenly halted their growth while they adjusted to the climate change.

After a little thought, I discovered a way to reap the benefits of the warm protective ring of water around my plants without the hassles of the wall-o-water protectors.

Here's how I created the same effect with recycled two-liter soda bottles. Wash and remove the labels from 7 two-liter bottles and fill with water.

Location

Choose the location of your tomato plants. As with any tomato plants it is important to choose a sunny location with rich soil and proper drainage.

Warm the Soil

To warm the soil, I set my bottles in the garden for a day or two prior to setting out the tomato plants. Because you can easily change the position of the bottles, this is easy to do. You could also warm the soil by covering the area with black plastic for a few days.

Transplant the Tomato Plants