New to growing your own tomatoes? This is the forum to learn the successful techniques used by seasoned tomato growers. Questions are welcome, too.
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#1 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: mobile zone 8
Posts: 83
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I am asking for a good 40-45 plants
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Zone 8 Mobile AL |
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#2 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2013
Location: glendora ca
Posts: 2,560
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Floating row cover that is if they are in the ground. Water before you put the cover on as it helps to keep the roots warm. How cold are we talkin?
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“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." |
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#3 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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Cover them up and if you have a drop light or something like a heat light put it under the cover too. I have piled hay on the plants with great success too. Worth Last edited by Worth1; March 5, 2015 at 08:46 PM. |
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#4 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: mobile zone 8
Posts: 83
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Last year we had a hard freeze in early April usually by the middle of March there is on average a 5-10% chance of a frost. Would box's work?
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#5 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Southern WI
Posts: 2,742
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A bottle of bourbon, a lawn chair, and a camp fire. Well maybe not cheap but enjoyable.
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#6 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 587
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#7 |
BANNED FOR LIFE
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 13,333
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Cover and dry leaves around the plants helps too. If it were just a few plants, I would suggest a large pot with a sheet over it and a large plastic tote/tub over that.
I've got to try that bottle of bourbon, lawn chair, and camp fire thing. |
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#8 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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Boxes would be great.
Darn it I dont have any bourbon in the house. ![]() Worth |
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#9 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Posts: 1,413
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get up real early, before the frost starts. Make several very smoky fires, maybe even some used motor oil. Or piles of wet leaves. If it's a frosty night, smoke will linger near the ground and prevent UV radiation from being radiated toward the sky.
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#10 | |
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a
Posts: 21,169
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It's known that those smoke particles created what are called ice nuclei which raised the temp of the leaves. Did it bother the neigbors? Probably, but originally there were no neighbors. My grandfather had bought 90 acres from the Shakers for 5K , sold half of that for 6K to someone else and paid off the mortgage, so we originally had 45 acres and my grandfather sold off building lots that created several roads. Many rich folks bought lots and one was purchased by Eleanor Roosevelt for her then bodyguard and she used to walk down to visit with my grandmother and gave some fuzzy toy animals to my brother and myself. Ah, memories. Carolyn, also remembering that our kitchen at the farm was originally a log cabin and the Shakers had built an addition to that and then built the main house in 1883 which we still called the new addition. ![]()
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Carolyn |
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#11 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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![]() I was asked by a farmer to burn his huge brush pile one time. I had no idea it had about 20 tires in it. The black smoke must have went 10,000 feet in the air and covered half the county. ![]() ![]() Worth |
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#12 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Florence KY
Posts: 234
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#13 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: zone 5
Posts: 821
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Any breathable fabric works, row cover is convenient but not that cheap. Regular old bedsheets work great, for individual plants you can even use things like newspaper if you can figure out a way to keep it in place. If it is really cold, strands of x-mas lights under the cover can add a few degrees, just don't let them touch the plants.
Don't use sheets of plastic, it gets really cold and can transfer that cold to plants and damage them. Also don't use vinyl Boxes work, and if the plants are still small, upside down flower pots or cut in half milk containers work too. The other thing you can do is make sure the soil is well watered before the cold front approaches. Wetter soil makes a little warmer micro climate around the plants. |
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#14 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Sterling Heights, MI Zone 6a/5b
Posts: 1,302
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Row cover is very cheap IMHO 13-20 bucks for 25 feet. 5 feet wide. Works great, you can keep it on too, as light penetrates and it really get's warm in there. I have garden staples to hold it down. it can start to get expensive, but I always liked using the right tool for the right job. Makes life easier.
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#15 |
Tomatopalooza™ Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: NC-Zone 7
Posts: 2,188
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Since this is for the future and not a current problem, the most inexpensive way is to wait a week or 2 longer to plant.
Cool soil temperature will prevent your plants from really doing anything those extra two weeks, so you're not gaining by planting out early. Lee
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Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put one in a fruit salad. Cuostralee - The best thing on sliced bread. |
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