Should I leave my tomatoes out?

[swee'pea99]

I put the seedlings out a fortnight ago to harden them off, and they seem at last to be getting back to actually growing, albeit slowly:

But I'm a bit concerned about rumours of upcoming coldness, winds, rain and general unpleasantness. Should I leave them out to take it like a man - or a tomato plant - or put them back in the shed for a few days till it all blows over?

Thanks.

 

[Drago]

Keep 'em covered. My seedlings stay indoors on a sunny windowsill, and my slightly more mature plants go in the greenhouse. If you can't get them covered then some 2 litre pop bottles with the top cut off protects them from the chill and enhances any sunshine we do manage to get.

 

[tom73]

No keep them in if they get checked now they never recover.
Tip learned years ago from my old Forman when you 1st pot them up go nice and deep up to the 1st set of leaves.
The whole steam them turns to root much better root system.
Makes much better plants that way we also did it for ones that got a bit leggy in the nursery.

 

[tom73]

If you have to leave them out you can always use some horticultural fleece one layer keeps most things about 5 degrees above ambient.
Putting stuff up against the wall of a house over night also helps it acts like a over night storage heater.

 

[Paulus]

All good advice above. Keep them in for a bit longer just to make sure they don't stop growing in the cool spell coming up.

 

[PK99]

No keep them in if they get checked now they never recover.
Tip learned years ago from my old Forman when you 1st pot them up go nice and deep up to the 1st set of leaves.
The whole steam them turns to root much better root system.
Makes much better plants that way we also did it for ones that got a bit leggy in the nursery.

All very sound advice.

The deep planting is a particularly good idea - been doing that for years, it gives much better plants.

 

[PK99]

on the subject of tomato tips...

I can heartily recommend spiral supports like these

one for each plant, just introduce the growth point to the spirals as it grows - no need for tying in

 

[biggs682]

We leave our hanging Tom's out and they are doing ok

 

[swee'pea99]

Thanks all. I'm going for the scaredycat consensus and stickin' 'em back in the shed for the duration. They can look out the window & feel snug...

 

[Paulus]

on the subject of tomato tips...

I can heartily recommend spiral supports like these

one for each plant, just introduce the growth point to the spirals as it grows - no need for tying in

View attachment 518330

Not seen this idea before, a bit late for this year maybe, but I'll give it a go next year.

 

[mudsticks]

Thanks all. I'm going for the scaredycat consensus and stickin' 'em back in the shed for the duration. They can look out the window & feel snug...

Yes it's too cold for them outside at night.
And it's due to get wet this week (I'm hoping in fact)

I don't know where you are but even here in relatively balmy Devon I'm still babying all 500 plants in a heated glasshouse.

They won't go into an unheated polytunnel til the end of next week, and even then I'll be nervous about late frosts.

It can happen, even in early May.

Toms can't bear those kind of temperatures.

Pot them on nice and deep as others have said.

Any stem buried, will make roots instead of shoots, feeding and supporting the plants throughout the season.

 

[tom73]

When I work at the nursery we got some of our stock in early from local growers. Every time some one come to the till we'd ask have you got heated greenhouse if they said no we use to tell them to put them back and come back once it warmed up. They always got in a bit of panic over if we'd have any left. We could have sold them 10 times over to the same customers but thats not how we liked to do business.

 

[Drago]

I'm a sad f*&#%r who records such things, and I recorded a frost as late as June 8th last year.

I'm happy with mine in the greenhouse now, a it's a pretty decent insulated poly job rather than single pane.

 

[Bazzer]

Mine have been in the middle of an unheated greenhouse for the last three weeks or so, as have my chillis and courgettes. But some of the plants of the variety which can go either outside or inside (Sungold), will not be outside until June, unless the plants start to get too big and I am short of greenhouse space.

 

[swee'pea99]

Thanks all. They're in the shed. They seem happy there.