I use to use them all the time, and just have gotten lazy. I would start them mid to late april, have them closed all the way on the top, and as the weather gets warmer open them up them up more and more on the top. I usually had mine off the first to second week in June. (just because in colorado we have no spring, we go from snow to hot)
STORAGE. Get all the water out, lay flat, roll, secure with rubber band.

I bought a package of them this year, but I didn't start my tomatoes early enough to use them. This is my first year to grow tomato plants from seed, so I wasn't sure how fast they would grow.

If you are past your area's last frost date, I would think it is safe to remove them. Are they open on the top yet?

Bonnie

Hi, GJmancini & Bonnie.

Thank you for the responses.

It's my first time trying the walls-o-water. I had heard that using talc powder during storage is a good idea, but I couldn't decide exactly where to put the powder & how much to use. It sounds like you don't worry that, right GJmancini?

Our last frost date is June 1, so I will wait a bit before removing them -- I have opened them all at the top. I was thinking of leaving them on the melons and squashes until June 12 (the day before I go to Botswana), but taking them off the tomatoes next weekend.

I wish they made smaller ones (smaller diameter) so that they would fit more nicely in my tiny square foot gardens (3X3). I've never seen smaller ones, have you? I guess I could use cloches but the WOW just seem so much easier.

It certainly got cold here last night, though once again the grey skies do not seem to be yielding any rain.

May everyone on the RMGF have great gardening weather this week -- no hail, tornadoes, or frost....

--Phoebe

I haven't used WOWs, but I would think sprinkling talc over the flattened WOWs and then rolling them up would prevent the plastic from sticking to itself while they are stored as the temps warm up.

Jen

I used the WOW's last year (the first time) and this year. I put everything outside in late April if I remember correctly. I was aiming for a little earlier, but all the nice days we had in april were never on the weekend when I had time to plant ;)

I took mine off 2 weeks ago and everything is doing fine so far (mine were getting cooked - even with them open all the way). You want to make sure you follow Pheoebe's advice about starting off when them closed, and not "opening" them until it's warmer.

Also, make sure the ground is flatish or they may fall over. I never had one fall over last year at all. This year I had 2 fall over, but they were also lopsided and kinda on an incline ;) Lesson learned LOL

As for storage, I have the space, so I just stored them flat, after cleaning them off and drying them. I would think rolling them (for space) would be just fine also ;)

Laura

a late response for this but for next year...

I have used WOWs now for two seasons. Although a lot of work for me at first, 2 hours for 16 WOWs, I think they are worth it. I cut the bottom out of a 5 gallon plastic bucket to use as a prop. The more clear WOWs seem easier to use then the (older version) dark green ones. The first year of using them, I put them out around 3/15/2007. I planted tomatoes and peppers - started from seed in Jan 2007. We ate tomatoes from these in June. This year I had a newborn and was less motivated. Everything began a month later. Although we'll have tomatoes earlier again, when CO weather gets hot, it can prevent tomatoes from bearing fruit. It's hot now so we'll see what happens. Although they seem to stay closed on their own, I had trouble keeping them from tipping over since my garden wasn't real flat/even. I bought some 2' bamboo sticks (4-5 per WOW) and created a teepee inside the WOW. Some were tied with string where they met and some not. (Did not seem to make a difference.) This prevented the WOWs from collapsing on my plants - less worrying for me!! This year, when the weather was going bad (snow or really cold), I put rubber binders around the tops of the WOWs. ASAP, I removed the binders. Last year I lost the tops of almost every plant and this year maybe only 1/18. By mid May 2008, a month after planting outdoors, the plants were almost to the top of the WOWs. I removed the WOWs, fed them a 0-10-10 food and the plants all seemed to stop growing for about 2 weeks. Now they are finally taking off. I am now completely sold on the WOW idea as long as I use the teepee system since my garden is hopelessly sloped.