Snow last night! My poor tomatoes!

[MomToTwoBoys]

The weather has been rather chilly and last night, it snowed. Yeah, snow. It wasn't a lot but it was enough to scare the daylights out of me!

I covered the base of the tomato plants with pillowcases, hoping that would help. Was it enough? Well, I went out this morning to get my trash can and checked the plants. They seem to be just fine. I read that a light layer of snow might actually shelter the roots, but to be safe, I decided to cover the base of the plant anyways.

What do you usually do when the weather ends up being less for desireable with your plants?

[frugalfranny]

Oh no!! MTTB I feel for you...how frustrating.

You are just north (and east) of me.....so don't send it here, PLEASE!!

I have been using the bells (or clonches, I think they are called) for years but when I went to see if I could find more (on-line) this year...NADA. I absolutely love them and they have allowed me to put my garden in the ground in April if I can get the plants ready. Hail is usually what will wipe me out.......and we just got missed last night with a storm that went through.

Things read or what I have done: I had a tomato plant that was too big for the bells when an earlier storm went through and I put a sheet over it..completely over it...held up by bamboo sticks in this case, but anything that will hold the sheet off the plant would work, then I hold the sheet in place and away from the plant, with rocks around the bottom.

One thing I have read is use the plastic zipper bags that comforters, blankets come in...cut them according to need to fit over the plant and hold them up with wire hangers or....whatever will work to protect it.

[pinetree]

I throw a sheet over the tomato cage, or put something around them to hold the sheet from squashing them down. Don't use plastic, it wont hold the cold away from the plants. Even covering them with a pot or bucket would be enough.

How frustrating for you, hope they are all ok.

[frugalwarrior]

Holy Mo!! I feel for ya. It's definately time for the beach. Hope it didn't stick.

[larabelle]

Man oh man SNOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!!!
It is hot hot hot here.
Lows in the 70's and highs in the 90's

[Momto2Boyz]

That stinks! We are lucky enough, that I have NEVER had that problem with tomatoes! (knock on wood) being in IL, we've never in my adult lifetime had snow after mid may when I put in tomatoes.

But I do know that Pinetree is right, you should be able to just toss a sheet over them and they should be fine. I was just reading in my veggie gardening book the other day, that tomatoes can withhold a frost, just not what they call a hard frost. So I would bet they are ok, especially if the plants aren't tiny!

[Debbie-cat]

That is horrible! It has been getting pretty chilly here at night, hovering around the freezing mark so I haven't even planted my tomatoes yet. Once the rain stops (it has been raining straight for 2 days now) then I will get out and plant them.

I hope they survive!

[MomToTwoBoys]

Yeah the frost wasn't hard at all, but there was a good amount of snow that stuck to the ground in some spots. The tomatoes seem to have made it out unscathed. The weird weather has just put off the planting of the smaller tomato plants to later this week.

I'm just so nervous because this is the first year I'm getting anything to grow past a seed sprout and I'm afraid it'll be ruined by the strange weather.

In all of the wacky weather, my green onions and two of my four herbs started sprouting!

[pink23]

That's the problem when you live in a place that snows a lot.