Help beside tomatoes! We're have a cold snap!? I have eleven strong tomato plants, which I have caged, fertilized,...
I have eleven strong tomato plants, which I have caged, fertilized, and lately pruned (they're indeterminate types, and I want some decent sized fruit). Last hours of darkness the weather dipped into the 40s, so I wrapped the cages beside towels. I took the towels off this morning beside some trepidation, as it still is in the 40s and raining. Then going on for half an hour latter it began to hailstones, so I hastily wrapped them up again. The hailstones stopped, but the weather is still cold and rainy, not to draw from above about 60 today, and into the 30s tonight. Should I of late leave them wrapped adjectives day? Should I unwrap them in recent times on top? What if it hails again? The rest of my garden, apart from the growth-resistant cukes (can't amount that out, but it's another story) are cold-tolerant (onions, peas, carrots), so I'm not as worried about those. Thanks to any who can submit advice.
Answers: Plastic bags/towels/fleece... the biggest thing is to stop any possible frost settling directly on the leaves, if you can do that they should survive a few hours of low temperature.
If you are growing old heirlooom +/- outdoor variety, they are likely to enjoy a higher cold tolerance anyway, which will assistance. Either way, any hurdle between the plant and the adverse weather will artificially create a micro-climate in the plant's fancy.
If you want to be more pro-active, have a rummage around the house for containers resembling hot water-bottles, or something you can put hot water INTO, that can be undamagingly stoppered. Last thing at dark, fill up your hot wet bottles, wrap them in mature towels/clothes- because you want the heat to slowly radiate, otherwise they'll be cold inside an hour - and place inside your tomatoes' temporary covering.
You probably didn't involve to do anything to the plants in the 40 scope range. Tomatoes are in reality pretty hardy, unless they undergo a concrete freeze. Put gallon jugs full of hose down out to warm up within the sunshine during the day, and throw some pallid sheets over the top to protect from frost settling on the leaves at night. If any piece of the plant happens to be dog-eared by frost, you will recognize it at once; only just prune the damaged part of a set, and the plant should be just fine.