Ollas Part 3: How Did My Garden Grow?

So if you read Ollas Part 1 or Ollas Part 2, you will know that I have a fascination with gardening with Ollas.

Last summer I used about 10 ollas in my tomato gardening adventures.  Two of those ollas were the GrowOya brand and the rest were homemade.  Now that Spring is here I thought I would give a quick update on how my tomatoes did with ollas, so that I can potentially save you some time.

It did not go well.

I think that the super dry climate of Utah just did not allow the tomatoes to get the much needed water from the ollas, even when I filled up the ollas everyday.  And this went for both the bought GrowOya and my homemade ollas.  And just so you know, filling up ollas is a pretty big chore with lots of funnels and squatting involved.  Basically, during the intense heat of the summer, it was not fun and since it was not rewarding, it was double not fun.  I ended up watering from above to save my urban tomato crop.

So, even though I love the idea of using ollas to cut down on water usage and be a super cool gardener, I cannot recommend it for a dry desert climate, especially for use in growing tomatoes.  I. Am. SO! Bummed.