New to gardening here, I've been housesitting and garden sitting all summer, alls gone well until a very cold snap last night. I had gone ahead and put sheets over the tomato plants which are loaded with green tomatoes. I had heard that it was going to warm up so didn't take them off the vines.

Well I uncovered them this morning, it's sunny and warming up, and some of the plants look wilted and dark.

Questions are. Do I take the tomatoes off these plants or leave them? How will I know if the tomatoes themselves were damaged?

I do know once I take them off what to do as I've read them on these helpful forums, just not sure at what point to take them off.

Thanks!

It really depends because one person's idea of a cold snap isn't necessarily the same as another's. If it was below 30 degrees (-1 C), for more than a couple of hours probably they are in bad shape. But depending on how wet the leaves get has a big effect on the damage in those circumstances, as well as how well the sheets kept the wind off and moderated the temperature drop, none of which I can see from Florida ;-). Probably there's not much to see, but the wilting you describe would be worth posting to get others' opinions.

If it was mild, short and protected, the plants may be craving sun and getting the temperature up as high as possible with maximum sunlight is a priority if they were mine. Yes, it does freeze here too, light freezes are what I contend with all winter, jumping between -2 C and +2 C (in breeze anything in the 30's F (somewhere around 5 C and below) can cause frost damage if unprotected, especially if there isn't a nice warming sun ASAP.

One thing I'm going to do this winter is buy one of those cheapo digital thermometers that shows the high and low for the last 24 hours besides the current temp, and put it in the covered area to see whats going on overnights. You can get them for well under $10 US from the popular auction site from the country that ships out billions of them for less that it costs for postage here. But even then, the temperature varies all over the place under so I'm not sure what good it will do, though it's definitely worth a try. Not sure how helpful that would be in a northern climate but like I said, we skirt freezing through the winter probably a dozen times, what's to lose...

What varieties are you growing, ... Best luck growing them and if you can show us a picture please do.
PC