After our first cold night in this spell, we are up to 46 at 9am and very sunny.

If it makes you feel better, go ahead and cover, but if it doesn't get below 40 the blossoms should be OK. You may lose a few, but that will give the plants more energy to produce larger fruit from what blossoms are left. If a plant has TOO many blossoms, it will produce very small fruit. The wind will keep the frost away, but the wind will knock off some blossoms, just like the warmer days.

I'd just reseed in a different spot. And get rid of that burlap, since the ants have infested it also.

Glad some things didn't flood out, but you might find out that the seeds are still that, just moved some.

I've moved all my plants that were in pots back into the greenhouse last night and will leave them in til Saturday. Our temps at night are going to be in the low 40s til then and then market on Saturday.

Thanks - it was the "feel like" temp with the wind chill that got me worried - was thinking more that I wanted to block the wind. At least it's not cold and dry and windy - that would be worse as far as drying out the plants I know.

Not sure if 40 degrees outside will be OK in the garage, not really windy in there but it's not sealed tight either. Bottoms of the garage doors and back door, window are pretty tight, just open soffits and rafters.

Maybe move the trays into the house/basement and leave the bigger pots under the table where they are with tarp draped over all the way to floor? Not that concrete floor will be radiating any heat, but just to block drafts? Or do you think a temp of 40 outside will be "normal" 43-45 inside with wind chill not a factor even if forecast says "feels like" 35?

What will the daytime temps. be in the garage? Tomatoes have trouble uptaking water once soil temps. get much below 50 F, so I'd maybe put some heat mats below them to keep their roots warm for the first day or two. I think the tops will be fine.
Eggplants are even more finicky and wilt when the soil temp. is below 55. It's not the cold nights that are the worst - it's the cold, rainy days we sometimes get this time of year (although it seems YOU got them instead!) that depress soil temperatures, especially in containers.

This post was edited by Slimy_Okra on Fri, May 24, 13 at 12:35

Thanks - right now in town is 58, we're 53 and the garage is 62 but will be cooling off soon b/c I think it stays about 5 degrees warmer than outside. But forecast is now saying 38 as a low tomorrow night in town - so we could see close to freezing here. Definitely going to cover the strawberries though I don't know if I can mulch again (I do have a 5 gal bucket of straw saved rest is in compost again). Tomatoes are going in the basement up on table.

I guess I'll advertise my plants for sale starting Mon so people can replace what gets frozen! I mentioned that I had extras on my blog, but no one's emailed me looking for plants.

Definitely advertise that you have plants 'in case others were froze out'.

The 'feel like' is same as wind chill. If not out in wind, then use the actual temps.

I've kept tomato and pepper plants down to 36 with NO problem as long as they were NOT in the wind. I do give them a good watering BEFORE the temps drop. I've had them standing in water and the water had a coating of ice, and still no problem, but the daytime temps climbed out of the freezing temps.

I'm worried about the berries now. We did cover the strawberries with tarps that we weighted down with rocks on the edges and I clothespinned to the hoops but new forecast is for 20-30 mph winds instead of 15-20. Don't know if there's anything I can do for the blueberries since I'm worried about things blowing away (sheets, cages, buckets) so if they freeze due to wind chill we just won't have any - the 3rd year in a row.

Even without the windchill from direct drafts, I'm worried the garage won't stay warm enough with open soffits, no caulking, no insulation or sheetrock (I'm not even sure about housewrap under the vinyl siding) so I'm bringing the tomatoes into the basement/house tomorrow. It's 48 outside right now and garage is 55 so should stay over 50 tonight but it's not going to warm up at all tomorrow.

Neighbor up on the ridge who gives DD riding lessons planted 4 tomatoes (was waiting for more from me) plus peppers and eggplant already though I told her Friday to hold off til June with those. So today I told her to put buckets over them. I don't think that's going to work - I hope her buckets don't all blow off down the hill! But she'll be replacing the peppers and eggplant for sure.

Now, people in town may not get a frost, so they might not realize their tomatoes took a hit. In fact, this particular neighbor told me that her Brandywines never got more than 4-5 ft tall, though nice and bushy, so maybe she always plants out early. She was surprised when I told her that everything I had extras of would get 7-10ft tall and expressed concern that she had no way to support the vines.

Buckets will work, just hold them down with a rock on top. Plus the rock will hold some heat.

I had one customer attached their tomato plants to their gutters. Of course the gutter was firmly attached.

Latest forecast:

Rain showers before 3am, then scattered rain and snow showers between 3am and 5am, then scattered snow showers after 5am. Low around 35. Northwest wind 15 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 39 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.

I took the tomatoes inside this morning (4" pots in the house,larger ones in the basement). Glad we covered the strawberries last night. We've been having "light rain" (I'd say in between "light" and "heavy" - so "steady"?) all day and it is RAW out there.

The Cherokee Purples I brought into the house Wed night and have been here since are dropping leaves though - perfectly good green leaves. The ones I left in the garage and brought in this morning look fine. Are they just stressed from being out in the sun and heat and then come inside? Not like the ones I kept in the garage got any more sun (no grow lights out there), or were kept warmer.

I just hope spending the weekend indoors after a week of hardening off doesn't stress all the plants. Think I'm going to have to spend the rest of the week hardening them off again?

we had a light frost this morning...had to scrape the windshield before leaving for the market. but the tomatoes and squash that are outside were fine even though they were uncovered. must have been down to mid 30's here.