Since San Francisco can fail to have enough consistent heat for larger tomatoes, I usually content myself with short season varieties and cherry tomatoes. They are the perfect solution since they mature and start fruiting in 52 - 65 days from the transplant date. But I secretly long for cultivars like Hawaiian Pineapple, Purple Calabash, and the larger variety of paste tomatoes. What to do? If I set tomato plants out too early they do not have enough heat to thrive and will end up becoming weak plants. If I wait for the optimum time, they suffer in our foggy late summer weather.
I priced "Wall O' Water" and it was too expensive for the number of plants I wanted to grow. I tried building little tents with plastic sheeting, but they were awkward and blew over in a gusty wind. One day as the water delivery man walked into work, I realized that he was carrying the answer to my dilemma over his shoulder. I asked how much the water company charged for bottles and it was reasonable enough for me to consider buying a few for a test. I had the bottoms cut off by a friend and tried them as cloches.
Last Spring I used them on several tomato plants and indeed, they grew very well and faster than their counterparts that had to fend off the cold without any help. This year I'm being more scientific in my testing and trying them on identical cultivars to see if the protected plant outgrows its twin. The test is also being conducted on a Japanese cucumber and when the seedling germinates, a melon.
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