When to take off the wall of water....

He're a note with some ideas from a local gardening friend:

Dave,
The instructions that come with the WoW's imply you can leave them on the plants all season if you wish, and I suppose that would be possible if one selectively prunes the leaves that get too big (such as your situation) inside the WoW. Theoretically, the plant would then grow out the top and prosper. I don't do that, however. When the plants get big enough to crowd the inside of the WoW, I remove the WoW and put a larger protector, such as a 5 gal plastic bucket with the bottom removed (free from any painter, they want to get rid of them) until the plants become sun-adapted. After a couple of weeks, you can remove the buckets. If you simply remove the WoW, you risk sun-scalded plants. They can survive it, but it "sets them back" a bit. The danger of leaving the WoW's in place, in my opinion, is that the very warm, moist environment creates a perfect climate for disease, especially the fungus diseases known as alternaria and septoria, or early and late blight. Bottom line, yes, I have seen this problem but I deal with it by removing the WoW.
r, Chip