Play4aBuck wrote:

Has anyone tried this or anything else like it?...




I tried some about 20 years ago. They work to the extent that they
protect small plants against fairly low temperatures. How low they can
go depends on the length of time below freezing and how much below
freezing it gets. The basic principle is the "heat of solidification" of
water as it freezes. This is the "heat" given off by the liquid water in
the process of freezing that keeps the overall temperature at 32F. Once
the water is all frozen, there is no more protection. (32F willl not
harm most plants, since the water in the plants has dissolved solids
which lower the freezing point.)

In practice, the wall-o-waters are cumbersome to set up and have a
finite useful lifetime. At a couple bucks each, they are useful to have
if you have planted some stuff and some cold weather is forecast. They
are not really usefull to count on for early production. You don't get
production to start that much earlier with them compared to without. If
you leave them in place, they frequently develop algae growth inside the
tubes which decreases the light available to the plant. The heat-sealed
tubes sometimes delaminate, causing the tubes to become non-uniform in
size and decreasing the structural stability of the tent, which can
collapse on the plant. They had a useful lifetime of perhaps two years
back when I used them.

On the whole, I prefer wire hoops and covers (e.g. reemay, clear
plastic) for transient protection to the wall-o-waters, but then all my
stuff is in rows which are amenable to such covers. The hoops and covers
are much quicker to set up.