Probably not any long term effect from the cool temp other than stocky plants which is a good thing. I would get them closer to the lights however. Even with some of the taller plants touching the lights there is no problem. The purple is from the temp but could also be a sign of too much water. Just my $.02.

This post was edited by Tomatovator1 on Mon, Apr 28, 14 at 21:42

Only good can come from it, as far as my own experience goes. I agree that sturdy, stocky plants will be the result of cool temperatures, as long as the light is sufficient.

Plant have also intelligence. That can get acclimated to their environment. There are tomatoes that are growing from the tropics all the way up to Siberia and Alaska. JUST LIKE HUMANS.

45-55 is ok. Hopefully it will warm up soon. What tomatoes are you growing in Z3/4? Years ago I was in Z4 and struggled to get a few Early Girls.

I've have had good luck with lots of varieties from early girls and 4th of July, to big beef, brandywine, super steak. This year I'm also trying Belgium giant, Cherokee purple, black krim, bloody butcher, early pick, Indigo rose, and a couple of others.

To get the large varieties to produce well, I've been starting them 7 or 8 weeks prior to planting in the ground. Many go in the ground from 1 gallon pots.

The planting area is covered with black plastic 2 weeks ahead of planting to help with heating the soil. Holes are cut in the plastic for the tomatoes. The black plastic stays on all summer.

I have had pretty good luck with getting large plants, lots of tomatoes, and some really big tomatoes. The tomatoes in this picture are in 5ft high cages. I'm 5'11".

The biggest that I got last year is the 1# 14 oz tomato on the right. the one on the left with several bites out of it weighed 1# 11 oz after the bites were taken out. Several deer managed to break through my deer fence one night. It's been really dry and I think they hit the tomatoes for the water in them.

I picked 7 tomatoes last year that were over 1.5 #s. Six of these were from Burpee's "Super Steak" seed and the other one was a "Pink Brandywine".

Cold treatment is used to get a tomato to look more stout, to bear flowers earlier and to increase yield. The long term effect is supposed to be positive.

Here is a link that might be useful: cold treatment for tomatoes

Seysonn....plants don't have intelligence. What they DO have is remarkable and not fully understood, but it's not intelligence in the way most of us use that word. :-)

Seysonn....plants don't have intelligence ..
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

"intelligence" by conventional definition as if it just belongs to humans. But it has a UNIVERSAL meaning.The thing is that humans are the most intelligent in the animals kingdom. There is different kind of intelligence in the plants kingdom. That is why/how they survive. This subject belong to Natural Philosophy.

I think plants are way smarter than people. At least they're still in The Garden :-)