Nate wrote:

|....it got
|colder than expected the night before last. It kind of crept up on
|everyone. It was in the lower 40s. Now a couple days later some of the
|tomato plants and the lettuce and musculin look very wilted. The
|peepper plants look ok.

|I had read lasy year (awhile after we had already planted the
|tomatoes) that if you cover the plants at least 50% up with the soil
|that you will get bushier plants. I have always gotten tall gangly
|tomato plants. So if the tops look bad can I take them off and uncover
|some of what we buried? Is that a good idea after a few days?
|
|I am conserned about the lettuce and musculin too.

Sounds as if the plants just got shocked by transplanting, possibly coming from
a too-soft nursery environment into the real world. Probably they needed
hardening off before planting.

I'd have expected tomatoes to handle the cold better than peppers. My book says
peppers quit growing at night temps below 50, so I don't put them out till it's
warmer. But my tomatoes are already surviving near freezing at night. Mesclun &
lettuce shouldn't be troubled at all - unless they came from a soft environment
& weren't hardened.

I'd suggest just leave everything alone for a few days and give the plants a
chance to recover. There may not be much more you can do at this stage. If the
soil is damp an inch or two below the surface, you don't have to water at all.

Planting tomatoes deep lets them make extra roots, which makes for sturdier
plants. But don't excavate them after planting. If you prune the tops you will
stimulate growth of side shoots, therefor bushiness. There are "bush" varieties
but otherwise most tomatoes get tall & lanky despite all.

Alexander