It was 4 AM when I got to the garden Wednesday morning. The forcast had called for a low of 32 degrees. It was 28 with a very heavy frost on all the plants. There was a full moon up and clear skys so I didn't have to stagger around in the dark. I used a 3 gallon tank sprayer with 2 gallons of warm water (95 degrees) to rinse the frost from the tomatoes and warm the soil a little around the base of the plants. By the time I finished the first round of rinsing the temp had dropped to 26.7 where it stayed until the sun came up. 48 of the tomatoes were under boxes and they had already been through 2 nights when it got down to 28 degrees without damage so I wasn't worried about those. I was concerned about the 176 which were uncovered and appeared to be at a popsicle tryout. They were due for a spraying with Garlic, Red Pepper, and Sage tea, so after rinsing them twice with warm water, I used warm Garlic, Red Pepper, and Sage tea for the final rinse. Might as well kill 2 birds with one stone as they say.

Now a little sharing is in order. What good is knowledge if you don't spread it around.

All of the plants in the boxes were undamaged and more blooms opened today.

A number of the exposed plants appear to be undamaged (I'll need a couple more days of sunshine to be positive). The biggest surprize was 41 F4 Better Boy plants none of which appear to have damage. The F3 parent of these plants won 2 double blind taste tests against other F1 Better Boys last year so I'm happy they made it.

Potato leaf varieties suffered more damage than regular leaf varieties. I don't have my plants labeled and numbered yet so I won't know specfics about each plant until I update the plant out sheets which won't happen until I replace those which have any damage with new healthy plants (The ground is too wet now to transplant).

I'm still on Plan A. Plan B involves a group of younger plants. All the current plants in the ground were seeded at the same time and I still have replacements from that seeding waiting in the wings for problems like this. The plant out sheets I use reflect any replacements and the transplant date so I can see how it effects fruit set, vigor, etc..

The reason I still have replacement plants is a number of friends who only show up at this time of year to ask if I have any extra tomato plants "I only need a couple of dozen." were told "Not now, but I might have some later on."

This cold spell isn't some fluke of weather or caused by "Climate Change". Around here we call it "Blackberry Winter", a 7 - 10 day cold snap with a couple of frosts which is worse some years than others and normally occurs when the Blackberries are in bloom (and they are in bloom now.).

Barring snow in July this should mark the end freezing weather for us and my boxes can come off in the next couple of days. Claud

@saltmarsh really wishing you the best of luck with your tomatoes as you wait it out a couple days. I dropped a few extra seeds when I planted and managed to have too many tomato plants when I moved them all to bigger pots. Eight plants in the ground and more than 20 for backup. I'm thinking of tossing a few of the backups in some grow bags as extras for canning if I don't need the backups. The rest will go to some charity that helps feed the homeless and needy when they are a decent size. I will still have some seeds left for next year, even if I end up planting more. But the germination rates probably won't be so good and next year I already planned to grow mostly heirlooms because I like the different tastes and colors.

I'm trying to avoid getting too excited about my plants surviving the frost. But I will be quite relieved if they are still doing well tomorrow. I only have one row cover and to me it seems rather flimsy for protecting anything from the cold. So, I just used the bottom half of a water bottle to cover the other plants that didn't fit under the frost cover.

Interesting to read what you shared, Claud. Yes, "Blackberry Winter" is what we call it around here although I think that's mainly a Southern term. Not a fluke and expected by most folks who garden. We're having it this week as well. The generations before me called it "Linsey-Woolsey Britches winter".

I have never heard the term 'blackberry winter,' but then again, I am from the north!

My Mother told me there is always a cold snap during Holy Week. She is in northern MI and still getting snow. We got down to 32 yesterday morning and 38 last night.

I used to plant my tomatoes out early but I am too lazy now to make the effort to cover if a frost is predicted. This weekend or next I am planning on putting mine out. All my extra plants get taken to market to sell. What doesn't sell gets a home somewhere.

Same here, Arlene. I don't plant out early anymore either.

We live about 4 miles due south of Murchison - just S of Lake Athens.

We have two tomato plants that were put in the ground on Feb 25 (inside wall-o-waters). Since then: it got to 29 for a couple of hours on 2/29, we got 1/2" of sleet followed by a low of 22 on 3/2, and finally (we hope) the 35 degree low on 4/15. The freezes in Feb and March weren't a problem, but by April, the plants were protruding about 5" above their walls-o-water. So, the day before that freeze, I put a 3cf mulch bag over the top of each w-o-w. This bag was removed by 10am that morning. Both plants are looking fine - even at the top. Here's a photo of the larger one.


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We've used w-o-w's for several years - both here and when we lived in Ft Worth. No plant losses that I recall. The ones we're currently using are made from reddish plastic.

Glad to hear they saved your tomatoes, neighbor. Do those wow's close at the top? So you can close them if its going to frost. Strange your so close and have a different zone number. Your place is colder though.

The w-o-w is essentially a flexible vinyl cylinder about 18" in diameter and 24" tall. It's built with 2" diameter "pockets" running from top to bottom all around it. When you place the cylinder on the ground (around your plant) and fill all the pockets with water (easier w 2 people), the cylinder more or less defaults into the shape of a teepee. It's self-supporting, but the hole at the top tends to be fairly small (2-4") unless you put some stakes inside to keep it open more. The weather forecast determines how wide you want that top hole to be. If your plant grows out the top before the weather becomes safe for the plant, you have to make other arrangements if you want to protect the top.

The initial value I recorded for my zone was wrong. Per the USDA map, we're in 8a, too. I've fixed it.