Bare minimum temps for tomatoes

I have somewhere around 250 tomato plants, and I'd like to go ahead and set out about 20 of them so they can get a bit of a head start on the season. Our supposed last frost date is April 15th (5 days from today) and here's our extended forecast:

Date	High Temp	Low Temp
Tue Apr 10	86 F	59 F
Wed Apr 11	85 F	57 F
Thu Apr 12	84 F	56 F
Fri Apr 13	81 F	54 F
Sat Apr 14	78 F	49 F
Sun Apr 15	68 F	41 F
Mon Apr 16	66 F	40 F
Tue Apr 17	61 F	37 F
Wed Apr 18	55 F	34 F
Thu Apr 19	60 F	35 F

As you can see, we're enjoying toasty weather right now, but it will cool down beginning early next week, even coming into the lower 30s towards the middle of next week.

Should I forget about setting out any tomato plants at all until after this is over, or will tomatoes generally be okay through a 34 degree night? What is the absolute lowest temperature you've seen a tomato survive? These guys are already nicely hardened off.

Dave

If you've got a bunch of empty milkjugs or 2 liter soda bottles that you can fill up with water, I'd go ahead and set them out, and then just put a couple of the "water bottles" next to them during those predicted cold nights. (Sorta like a homemade "Wall-O-Water") And throw on an old sheet over the top to keep in the ground warmth. As long as you don't get below 32°, they should survive, but they won't really thrive until the nighttime temperatures are warmer. Do remember that frost pockets occur in lower lying ground or places with no air circulation first, so if your site is down in a hollow, you'll want to take that into consideration too. That might subtract a degree or two from the expected low and you might end up with mushy plants.

Ever hear of those wall-o-water things? I know that most the garden centers and farm stores sell them around here. They might be a good investment for you 'cause you can use them year after year.
http://www.snow-pond.com/Seasext/3621.html

Heck Dave ~ If I were you... I'd just plant them. If they call for frost cover them with old sheets, blankets, tarps, straw & leaves, buckets, boxes or........what ever you can find. Frost can be real weird. I have it hit some areas of my yard and not even touch others. It depends on the moisture content in the air and dips & valleys in the landscape. My neighbor pushes it every year ~ I can't tell him any different. He usually does Ok but once in a while he gets burned. He never bothers to cover things though and that would save him most of the time.

We're on a hill here (our house is the highest residential elevation in our county) and the air flow is excellent. We always have a nice breeze blowing.

Thanks for your help gals. I'll put out these 20 plants and see what happens. As we get closer to that 34 degree forecasted day, and it is still looks bad, I'll cover them per your suggestions.

Dave

Dave, If you cover for frost, just remember that plastic gets condensation on the underside and often freezes, damaging any leaves in contact with it... so be sure to either use cloth or at least a non-plastic sheeting!

Thanks Darius!

Dave,I jumped the gun with about 20 plants this week too.I've got some empty 5 gallon buckets that will do the trick for the next week or two. The number of plants I put out is directly related to the number of buckets that I have. I've got a friend in the drywall business and they throw gobs of them out every day. They should be protected to about 30 with a 5 gallon bucket.

Dave

RE Stokes and Johnnys Seed Catalog, transplant when the soil temp at 4" deep is 50F at 8AM in the morning.

I see some lows getting very close to freezing, Around here
we are lucky if the forcasters are within 10 deg for low night temps.

For every night a tomato plant goes below about 45F it takes about 3 days for the plant to recover,

An old saying, that is fairly close, for every night below 45F you lose 3 days of harvest.

FWIW
Byron

Dave

Here in south Texas we have the problem of heat.It get so hot early and stays that way for so long that most of us plant as early as we can and thus run the risk of a freeze.I have found that I can protect the entire garden ,beans,potatoes tomatoes and anything else I may have up at the time by turning on the overhead sprinkler and letting it run.I have let it run all night.What ever is lost due to the freeze is what the water did not reach.It may be a week before I can get back into the garden but I have something to go back to.
glenn