Frosted tomato plants
 

Three hard frosts seem to have done for my outdoor tomato plants.
The leaves have turned yellow and shrivelled up.
There are a few small green leaves at the top.
The plants are about sixteen inches high.

Is it worth leaving the plants for a while, to see whether they recover?
Or should they be removed immediately, to prevent disease?
Or what?
--
Chris

Frosted tomato plants
 

"Chris" wrote

Three hard frosts seem to have done for my outdoor tomato plants.
The leaves have turned yellow and shrivelled up.
There are a few small green leaves at the top.
The plants are about sixteen inches high.

Is it worth leaving the plants for a while, to see whether they recover?
Or should they be removed immediately, to prevent disease?
Or what?

Err, outdoor tomatoes don't go outside until all chance of frost is passed,
after Chelsea say, first week in June in most places including here. If they
still have green leaves looking OK at the top it probably was not frost as
the top would usually be the first to get frosted, and the leaves go black
in my experience.
Sounds more like wind burn.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

Frosted tomato plants
 

On 10/05/2012 16:01, Chris wrote:
Three hard frosts seem to have done for my outdoor tomato plants.
The leaves have turned yellow and shrivelled up.
There are a few small green leaves at the top.
The plants are about sixteen inches high.

Is it worth leaving the plants for a while, to see whether they recover?
Or should they be removed immediately, to prevent disease?
Or what?




Bob is right; it may be a bit early if you're still getting frosts.

In your position, I would remove the spoiled leaves as they may attract
fungal disease (including Blight) and snails. Then, I would earth up
the stems slightly (draw soil up around the base of the stems for an
inch or two), because tomato plants are stem rooting. This will give
them some added protection from the frosts at soil level, and tend to
strengthen the plant. If you can use fleece (or similar) to protect the
plants for a while, you may find that your plants survive and start to
put out new leaves and branches.

*After the frosts have passed*, it may help to give them a *little*
general purpose feed to put back some of the energy they've just
expended and wasted. Don't start using high potash tomato feed until
the fruit trusses have formed.

If you rely on your tomato crop, it may be worth starting off some new
plants as insurance against losses. You'll have no trouble giving them
away if they become excess to requirements.

Good luck.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay

Frosted tomato plants
 

In article , Bob Hobden
writes
"Chris" wrote

Three hard frosts seem to have done for my outdoor tomato plants.
The leaves have turned yellow and shrivelled up.
There are a few small green leaves at the top.
The plants are about sixteen inches high.
Is it worth leaving the plants for a while, to see whether they recover?
Or should they be removed immediately, to prevent disease?
Or what?



Err, outdoor tomatoes don't go outside until all chance of frost is
passed, after Chelsea say, first week in June in most places including
here. If they still have green leaves looking OK at the top it probably
was not frost as the top would usually be the first to get frosted, and
the leaves go black in my experience.
Sounds more like wind burn.



It was definitely frost: three hard frosts on the trot.
My fault for planting them out too early.
Any advice?
--
Chris

Frosted tomato plants
 

In article ], ] says...

In article , Bob Hobden
writes
"Chris" wrote

Three hard frosts seem to have done for my outdoor tomato plants.
The leaves have turned yellow and shrivelled up.
There are a few small green leaves at the top.
The plants are about sixteen inches high.
Is it worth leaving the plants for a while, to see whether they recover?
Or should they be removed immediately, to prevent disease?
Or what?



Err, outdoor tomatoes don't go outside until all chance of frost is
passed, after Chelsea say, first week in June in most places including
here. If they still have green leaves looking OK at the top it probably
was not frost as the top would usually be the first to get frosted, and
the leaves go black in my experience.
Sounds more like wind burn.



It was definitely frost: three hard frosts on the trot.
My fault for planting them out too early.
Any advice?

Scrap them, they will never thrive. Sorry !

Janet

Frosted tomato plants
 

In article ,
Bob Hobden wrote:

Err, outdoor tomatoes don't go outside until all chance of frost is passed,
after Chelsea say, first week in June in most places including here.

See the Climate FAQ - wait for the arrival of the flying pigs!
You simply have to take a risk, even in the south, because there
is a significant chance even in late June, and all year in the
north.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Frosted tomato plants
 

"Chris" ] wrote in message
]...
Three hard frosts seem to have done for my outdoor tomato plants.
The leaves have turned yellow and shrivelled up.
There are a few small green leaves at the top.
The plants are about sixteen inches high.

Is it worth leaving the plants for a while, to see whether they recover?
Or should they be removed immediately, to prevent disease?
Or what?
--
Chris

Why have you planted them out so early?

Frosted tomato plants
 

In article ,
Janet writes
In article ], ] says...

In article , Bob Hobden
writes
"Chris" wrote

Three hard frosts seem to have done for my outdoor tomato plants.
The leaves have turned yellow and shrivelled up.
There are a few small green leaves at the top.
The plants are about sixteen inches high.
Is it worth leaving the plants for a while, to see whether they recover?
Or should they be removed immediately, to prevent disease?
Or what?



Err, outdoor tomatoes don't go outside until all chance of frost is
passed, after Chelsea say, first week in June in most places including
here. If they still have green leaves looking OK at the top it probably
was not frost as the top would usually be the first to get frosted, and
the leaves go black in my experience.
Sounds more like wind burn.



It was definitely frost: three hard frosts on the trot.
My fault for planting them out too early.
Any advice?

Scrap them, they will never thrive. Sorry !
Janet


Thanks, Janet. I will do that.
Would it be OK to keep a couple of them - just to see what happens to
them?
Or would there be a risk of disease to the new plants?
--
Chris

Frosted tomato plants
 

Frosted tomato plants
 

In article ,
Frank wrote:

Err, outdoor tomatoes don't go outside until all chance of frost is passed,
after Chelsea say, first week in June in most places including here.

See the Climate FAQ - wait for the arrival of the flying pigs!
You simply have to take a risk, even in the south, because there
is a significant chance even in late June, and all year in the
north.

Yes, but you don't need temperatures to be freezing to cause problems
for toms. At the moment in the SE it's barely getting above 50°F in the
day. and that's been the case for most of the past few weeks. That's not
warm enough to be on the safe side.

That merely means that you have to wait until the unicorns have
arrived, too. My point was that there IS no safe date.

Normally at this time of year I'd
have expected to see temperatures near 60\xb0F by now in the south.

I wouldn't, but you may have been fooled by the fact that we have
had a decade or two of early springs. Many decades ago, long before
I wrote the Climate FAQ and even before Usenet, I used to ask a
trick question: if you are in the UK, and it is 50 Fahrenheit and
overcast, what time of year is it? The answer is that it can be
any time, in any location, though it is relatively unlikely in the
south in summer and fairly rare in the north in winter.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Frosted tomato plants
 

wrote:
In article6YudnUvW_uxkzizSnZ2dnUVZ7oOdnZ2d@brightvie w.co.uk,
wrote:

have expected to see temperatures near 60\xb0F by now in the south.

I wouldn't, but you may have been fooled by the fact that we have
had a decade or two of early springs. Many decades ago, long before
I wrote the Climate FAQ and even before Usenet, I used to ask a
trick question: if you are in the UK, and it is 50 Fahrenheit and
overcast, what time of year is it? The answer is that it can be
any time, in any location, though it is relatively unlikely in the
south in summer and fairly rare in the north in winter.

Not fooled at all. With one or two exceptionally cold springs I've
habitually put my toms out by mid May, and they have been fine. This is
one of those years where we've had a prolonged cold period where
temperatures are well below average for this time of year and for May so
far.

http://www.climate-uk.com/graphs/201205.htm

Frosted tomato plants
 

Frank wrote:
Yes, but you don't need temperatures to be freezing to cause problems
for toms. At the moment in the SE it's barely getting above 50?F in the
day. and that's been the case for most of the past few weeks. That's not
warm enough to be on the safe side. Normally at this time of year I'd
have expected to see temperatures near 60?F by now in the south.

My melon and tomato plants in the greenhouse are looking ropey, let alone
anything outside. :-(

Frosted tomato plants
 

Nick wrote

In article ,
Bob Hobden wrote:

Err, outdoor tomatoes don't go outside until all chance of frost is
passed,
after Chelsea say, first week in June in most places including here.

See the Climate FAQ - wait for the arrival of the flying pigs!
You simply have to take a risk, even in the south, because there
is a significant chance even in late June, and all year in the
north.


I'll wait until my experience living in this area tells me I'm very unlikely
to get another frost. Yes some years ago we did get a grass frost on the 9th
June but that was a one off and didn't kill my Toms, only some of my
cucurbits, so the very end of May beginning of June is early enough here.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK