Can you cover them with sheets? 38 is iffy. The parts that freeze will be ruined. Cities are warmer so if you are in a valley in the country, you could get a frost. I have the same situation and I am gambling that my tender plants will make it this time.

Pull out the sheets and milk jugs of hot water! I do that every year to get my tomatoes and peppers through early frosts.

If you're not going to cover them then check them in the morning before the sun comes up. If there's frost on the leaves spray it off with water.

I'm in southeast Michigan, and wondering the same thing. Right now I'm thinking this will just be a close call, but won't kill my plants. But I'm keeping an eye on the forecasts at NOAA.gov. I may spray the leaves with water, like taz said, if it starts looking like frost. I'm also wondering if a fan would help during the coldest part of the morning, since frost usually happens when it's not windy. I have too many to cover them all.

Yes a fan will help. That is what many commercial growers use.

Thanks taz. I may have a lot of really nice tomatoes in the next couple weeks, if I can just get them through the next couple days.

I just went and covered some of my plants with row cover. The wind is gettin' up underneath it & blowing it around, sooooo...I gotta go do sumpin' else to it. LOL!

They've only gotta get thru the next 3 nights & most of the big ones will ripen within a week.

I used to leave them until the first light frost. It made it easier to find the tomatoes. Then two years ago the first frost was a hard frost. I lost most of them.

You can always irrigate them. That will stop them from freezing. IF you have overhead irrigation.

I've been trying to make mine last as long as possible too, keeping an eye on the weather reports. But last night a new worry seized me:

Since tomatoes turn mealy in the fridge...is there some temperature, less cold then frost, which will make them turn mealy on the vine, or otherwise negatively affect their texture?

(And if not, why not? What exactly causes the fridge mealiness phenomenon?)

Eric

There was another thread on late green tomatoes where you put them in a picnic cooler with an apple and they will ripen slowly. That's what I'm trying right now.

We cover during light frosts then pull everything before the first hard frost, unless it sneaks up on us. We wrap the greenies in newspaper and put them in a cardboard box in a cool area and check them every few days to see what's ripening. We tried the "pull the plants and hang them upside down" thing one year but it didn't work real well for us.