Cold night tonight!!!

[TJS]

Hi all, this is my first post here. I'm in charleston SC area and our last expected frost date is supposed to march 15. Well here it is april 7 and I have planted out all the heirloom tomatoes I grew from seed and guess what... 30 degrees tonight arrg. So I built a 2x4 frame and have put 2 layers of row covers and stuck a light under, and although the temps got to 44 degrees last night under the covers it was still only 50 degrees. So today I went and got some plastic for another layer and will add another light. Need to save these plants, they are about two feet tall and some have set fruit.
Any way, I have looked all over the web for specific low temp damage range for tomatoes. Does anyone have this info?
Thanks in advance for any help, Tim
Anyway,

[duajones]

good luck with your plants, hope all goes well

[Spider]

Good luck TJS, I moved my plants inside the garage and the house; Prospect, Ky morning temps 20 to 30 lows throught Easter Monday. Spring break my foot...Merry Christmas!
Spider

[Worth1]

I know some will disagree with what I do but I have had tomatoes growing in weather that is in the 30s.
As long as the temps don’t stay there for an extended time (several days) they do just fine.
Another well known preventive measure some farmers and orchard growers do is to run a water mist system on their plants during a short frost or freeze.
The constant flow of water will be at a higher than freezing temperature and thusly keep the plant from freezing or frost from forming.
As long as you can keep the plants above freezing you will be just fine.

I have never seen any bloom damage or drop due to this short temperature drop and they jump right back on the growing wagon when it warms up.

Some of my best crops have came from plants that were subjected to night time temps of 35 to 40 degrees and the day time temps in the 60s and 70s for weeks before it finally warmed up at night.

I hoped this helps and takes some of the worry off of this cold snap.

Worth

[Fusion_power]

Worth is essentially correct. The only thing I would add is that some varieties are more cold tolerant than others. I have seen Kimberly plants survive temps of 24 degrees. Brandywine growing right next to it was decimated.

Fusion

[TJS]

Well, here's what I've done so far; I still have one row cover on ( took one off to catch some heat from the sun) and noticed that the temps inside were 100 degrees on the soil. So got all of the one gallon jugs , filled with water, stones and stuck them under to maybe catch and store some heat to be released tonight. Thanks to Worth and FP for the reassurance.
Tim

[FlipTX]

I hope my plants are ok with the 37 degrees they're forecasting for my area tonight.

Last year we had an early spring and this year we're having a late winter.

[Ruth_10]

Fortunately I don't have my tomatoes in yet, but I do have sugar snap peas, kohlrabi, radishes, and strawberries going in the garden. We got down into the mid-twenties Wednesday and Thursday nights and last night it got down to 21 and didn't warm up past freezing until about noon (a whopping 36 degF as I write this). I have floating row cover (two layers) over my strawberries, which were in bloom. Supposed to get down into the lower twenties again tonight. So it's a sustained cold and I am just thankful I don't have more stuff going in the garden. I feel for those who do, especially the market gardeners. P.S. I made a DIY self-watering planter from kitty litter buckets. I have a Kimberly planted and it has blossoms. The size and weight is such that I can move it as necessary. Needless to say, it's spending a few days inside.

[duajones]

forecasted low here in corpus is around 44 and its 44 now. rainy and wind gust up to 40 mph plus. my plants are taking a beating. I sure hope they rebound from this

[gardenmaniac]

Brrrr. My plants have been in the ground for three weeks. I covered them to keep off frost, but they will still be cold under there. Forecast for Tallahassee tonight is 31F but last night was supposed to 34F and it stayed in the 40's. Hopefully they will be wrong again. At least the covers are keeping them safe from the cold wind! The apple tree is just too big to cover, but it has already set apples and it is our first year for fruit, sigh... I hope they can handle the cold.

Tiffanie

[nctomatoman]

We were at 30 degrees this morning, with ice on our windshield and in my pickup truck's bed. Today, 20-30 mph winds, never got over 48 degrees...tonight we are heading for the mid 20s, which will really nip the azaleas, lilacs, some of our blooming perennials. I don't like our 3000 tomato and pepper seedlings spending so many days in the garage, but at least they will survive - though probably won't get back out into the sun until Tuesday mid morning. I am hoping that the new columbine patch I planted last mid summer will bloom at least a bit. We have a row of lettuce and chard that is under a triple layer of Reemay, a row of sugar snaps that will have to fend for themselves, and lots of flowers on blueberry plants that may be doomed.

[natural]

We moved our 2000+ plants into the garage. Looks like they'll be there for 2 to 3 days.

Anybody know if you can move these "previously" hardened off plants back into direct Sun all day after they've been in the garage for 2 to 3 days? Or will they have to be re-acclimated to the direct Sun? Some of them have been outside previously for over a week.

[feldon30]

Last year on March 22nd, we got down to 33 or 34, I forget.





Lost Plants: 0


Last December, when we had that absurdly early frost, I quickly built this out of 1x2 and stapled clear plastic all the way around, but by the time I did it, it was already 36 degrees outside, so there was not enough trapped warm air to save the plants:



Lost Plants: All



(space reserved for pictures of the new, permanent structures we built yesterday)

[Worth1]

I'm sitting here like an idiot not doing a thing.
Time will tell.

Feldon is that a sunken tomato bed I see just to the right of the raised beds?8)

Worth

[Earl]

Low of 20 forecast here in my area of SW Ohio, but dewpoint is now at 13 so it could go even colder. Got garlic and chard covered with remay.. and two heaters in the greenhouse, one gas, one electric. I think I'd better sleep with one eye on my remote thermomerter tonight. Good luck everyone.