Iris,
I personally would protect my tomatoes.
I know Trudi will say let them be, they'll be fine.
Hopefully someone will chime in with their opinion, I know I coddle my plants.
As far as zinnias, I would protect them too, maybe throw a sheet or row cover over them.
But again, that's me, and I suspect you will get different opinions from others.

I'd move them into the garage or throw a sheet over the containers to protect in case of frost.

I don't coddle. Tom seedlings can suffer a night down to 28 degrees and apparently not be worse for it. However, some people may be more caring and will toss an old comforter over the seedlings for the night--it should be lifted before you leave the house for the day because it can trap sin heat underneath the layers of the comforter.

I'm all about tough love for the seedlings. Currently, I have a gazillion cups of tomato seeds outside, none has sprouted yet, but I was late to the dance and the didn't get outside until a few days ago. They've already gone through rain, hail, snow, more rain, more hail and freezing rain and two inches of snow.

The nice thing about letting Ma Nature cull the weak is that the weak don't survive. I grow a significant amount of tomatoes each year and I am grateful if a freezy night knocks of a few early sprouters. It's less to plant and their sprout-too-early-I-am-sickly genetics can't be passed on to the next generation. I don't want crappy plants, so the weak are knocked off soon after germination or transplant, and anything that doesn't thrive here with my limited care gets yanked out. I don't have the desire or time to care for weak plants. So, I love Ma Nature and I let her do her thing because she lets me do mine ;-)

To each their own, and everyone must do what they are comfortable with. My preference will always be to let the weak fail. It may not be for everyone, but it works for me and it is one of the key reasons why WS provides you with an abundance of hardy seedlings. Finally, I'll add, that this was one of the reasons why I started giving away tomato seeds, because I want everyone to go through a season WSing their toms. I give you the seeds so you don't have the concern with spending your own money for them.

I don't know that there is a connection between sprouting early and being genetically weak.
Maybe some plants are just eager!

I have found that winter sowing tomatoes is a wonderful thing. It seems to take three warm up periods for them to sprout. Once they are up they are very cold hardy but need protection on any nights under 32. I normally set those jugs aside and they go in a unheated hay trailer each night and back out the next morning. I have also managed to toss a towel over a jug and that has worked too or a old horse blanket. Tomato seeds are my first seeds that I winter sow each year and very thankful for learning how to do this here.

I'm with Trudi. I've been wintersowing tomatoes for several years and they do just fine. I do not, however, sow them until mid-March.

Even if you have the benefit of an indoor area to start your seeds, there is no advantage to doing it too early. In my zone, last frost date is May 15th. That means that you normally don't start your seed planting indoors until late March, early April.

Once my containers go out, I barely look at them (OK, I do peek inside every once in a while) until the weather warms up.

Since I learned about wintersowing, I've been growing more flowers and tomatoes than ever. This method can make a great gardener out of anyone.

Trudi is my hero!

I tried winter sowing toms several times, but never got any serious fruiting until mid-October, and often I'd have to pull unripe ones for fear of frost. Maybe it's not practical for this zone, 4B?

The seeds that sprout early may not be genetically weak, but maybe they aren't as well-adapted to the colder zones with later frost? Sounds like Trudi is letting nature select the plants that are best suited to her growing conditions. And who cares about a few losses when you've got plenty of seeds and seedlings. I wouldn't do that with the expensive seeds from Swallowtail that only have 10 or 15 seeds per packet though!

Rane-grow, I put the up against the south side of the foundation of the house. Because the foundation retains heat and it's southern exposure, this microclimate is the warmest in the yard. Usually I don't even bother covering the seedlings there.

Are they genetically weak? Can seeds be stupid or foolish? I don't know too, but why don't the rest of the tom seeds in the flat sprout too early too; I've not seen it happen yet, a few do come up extra early, but never a whole flat. My assumption with the very early sprouters is that something is not right. Ma Nature culls the weak, and anything that sprouts too soon is weak. And I do not want that particular propensity passed on to the next generation. I am glad to see them knocked off.

In Zone 4b, you should be sowing the extra early toms because of you're short season. Anything 62DTM or less is still going to crop towards the end of your short growing season, but you'll be cropping ripe fruits.

TGS has a great list of earlies. I think online catalogues are great learning tools.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Growers Supply ~ Early Varieties

I don't think a tomato biting the dust in below freezing temps ia a sign of weakness, I think it's what that plant is genetically programmed to do. They do that in fall too. Ditto zinnias and other tender plants. They're not supposed to live in winter temps. You might get lucky, they might survive, but they might not. Frost or killing freeze isn't determined only by actual temp, it also varies with wind, humidity, and other things like microclimates.

As far as sprouting early, who is to say what's early. I sowed two cups of "Tomato Delicious" and they were the first two to sprout. I think their genetic program tells them to sprout before the other types.

I just sowed my tomatoes about a week ago. Did my first sprouts germinate too early? I think not. We had temps in the 70s this week. But it's supposed to be 25 on Sunday.

I think the seeds have done just what they should. If there was a goof-up factor, it was the gardener. I should have waited another week to sow them.

Karen

I am kind of on the fence regarding tomatoes. For just about everything else I grow, I'm like Trudi, a "tough-love" gardener. If it dies, it wasn't meant to grow here kind of attitude. But somehow when it comes to my tomatoes, and peppers, I'm more of a coddler. Guess I'm not willing to take a chance with my salsa ingredients : ) I'm in zone 5, and I'm planning to wintersow my tomatoes tomorrow. It's a little later than some years, but we have only had high's in the 40's and 50's, and we had 9" of snow last week, so I know I'm not too late. If we drop below freezing after they sprout, I will either place a row cover over them, or bring the milk crate into the unheated garage for the night. Usually, I only end up doing that a couple of times each year, so I don't think I'm babying them too much. Besides, it's like Trudi said, you have to do what you feel comfortable with. As for me, when a frost is predicted, I feel all warm and fuzzy knowing my tomato sprouts are safe, LOL.

Bonnie

In order to avoid the problem discussed here.

Can you do the following?

In reference to Zone 6(NY), can you WS in end of March that way by the time they are transplanted in ground it will be anyway mid MAY or end of MAY where we wouldn't have to worry about freezing weather.

The other thing you could do is, if you sow early and they sprout early and plants are big enough where you must transplant them then can you transplant them in a safe location instead of it's final destination. You can transplant them under roof overhangs, side of a house where it will be protected somehow. Only drawback of this method is it will require double transplanting, let's say one in april and other one in May when the danger of frost is negligible.

Isn't it hard to go out and cover so many plants (flower and veggies) especially if they are all over the place around the house. If it is in one location then it will be easy to cover them up.

What do you guys think?

Covering mine is really no big deal, as they are all together. This picture was taken a couple of years ago, but you get the idea.

{{gwi:364750}}

The milk crate at the front right of picture, had all tomatoes in it. I could either throw a cover over everything, or just grab the crate with the tomatoes in it, and place it in the garage. Takes about 10 seconds.

Bonnie

I'm with Bonnie.
I don't sow hundreds of seeds. I might sow one package of Sage for example.
whatever comes up, (only one so far) I want it to live.
My philosphy is not let the strong survive and the weak perish - if one is breeding then I can understand that philosphy but for me, I want to be able to plant as much as possible of what I sow.
I have 10 containers right now. No big deal to cover them as I did last night.
If anyone has tomato sprouts that survived 21 degrees as it was here last night, I'd like to hear about it.

I think the point is - as others have said here - to sow at the right time.

You can't blame the plant bec. it sprouts when temps reach 70; the plant doesn't have an almanac to consult that would tell it that this is Feb and it is likely to freeze again.

I - the human - have to learn the lesson - that if I plant too early I will lose sprouts.

It's 31 degrees here now and my tomato sprouts had a sleepover in the garage. I'll move them outside in a couple of hours for more light. No sun today, but brighter light. They'll be sleeping in the garage for the next 3 nights when temps are supposed to drop into the 22-30 degree range. I'll bring them outside during the day.

Karen