Any frost or freeze damage would be very apparent almost immediately. Damaged areas would wilt down and turn dark green/black. Whether they are set back for a good while is another matter. Only way to know is wait and see I guess. Did you start them from seed or purchase plants? You might have to get some replacements.

edit: I guess I should have also asked how big they are as far as getting replacements, I was assuming they were still smallish.

This post was edited by Whosurtomato on Mon, Mar 3, 14 at 18:37

Sorry to hear that. Too bad that the forecast was so much off. If only few leave got frost bite, chances are that the plants will survive.

There is always some risks in early planting. I usually DO take some calculated risk with the late frost. Sometime it pays sometimes won't.

I am in Corpus Christi and all of my seedlings did not fair at all well through this cold snap - but the stems are still green, the leaves are wilted badly. They were on the smallish side 2-3 inches in height with at least 3 sets of leaves, but they were raised from seed (inside/under lights)potted up into soil - I brought them in during the last cold snap last week, but we did not even get down to 32 degrees, we may have hit 36* and all of my babies are gone. Cucumbers got hit pretty hard as well, but the stems are green, but the leaves are gone. I had thankfully started another flat of beef steak which are out in the (unheated) garage and the first set of real leaves are just starting to show. I'm in complete tears - I had started well over 30 tomato plants and I have a couple that were left inside and that is all that is left. I guess I will be starting another flat of cherry tomatoes this evening. Hugs to Lucille and hoping your tomatoes make it through! Not quite sure mine will.

There is quite a bit of wilting on a few when I covered them up, but have not uncovered them, I will do that maybe tomorrow afternoon so I guess the way they look then will tell me how bad off they are. They were from seed, and 12-16 inches high.
Frostwoman thanks for the well wishes and I'm sorry for the loss you sustained with your seedlings.

That stinks frostwoman, sounds like you got some frost. I don't want to sound like a know it all, but living in an area that gets this type of thing every year as opposed to those down south that might not see it but every ten if the temp going to be below 40 to 45 degrees cover or bring in those tomatoes or other sensitive crops. I think a lot of folks in the 8-10 zones are going to get bit this year.

Sorry Lucille, I was afraid of that. Kind of hard to replace those. Check them out and maybe see if enough plant is left to make a go of it. Not sure if you have time to get in another bunch of plants before the heat shuts down pollination even if you were to buy them. Still it really stinks to lose ones you start yourself and exactly what you want. If they look halfway decent I would take a chance on them and maybe sneak in a few bought one just in case if you have the room.

Thank you Whosurtomato. I'll check them all out when I uncover them tomorrow and if I have some dead plants I'll take your advice and buy a few replacements.
I'm not sure exactly how to triage a tomato plant- if it is all limp I guess it is a goner, but if it has a few damages leaves I'm not sure what I will do. Time is not on our side in Texas, if they is a lag in production because of injury as you say at a certain point heat shuts down pollination.

I'm not too far from you (San Antonio) and have to say that covering them may not have saved them either. I covered mine up at noon on sunday when I felt the cold breeze rolling in. The nighttime temperatures were still low enough to wilt the leaves badly. The plants looked really sad yesterday, although I didn't dare to open the cover and let the temperature drop in there. Today they look a little better, but I did see some dark green and wilted edges around some leaves. It really sucks.. I didn't expect this (even though, yes, the last average frost date is still 10 days away, I should have known better). My plants are quite a bit bigger already, though. I'd say about 25-30in tall. So I'm really, really hoping that I don't have to start all over.

I feel for you. I had to toss 7 tomato plants today. I had them planted outside, and covered. They were brown to the ground, and slimy.

Well to make up for it I have lots of others going indoors, and have staggered planting as to have some back ups. I also bought a Bonnie Plants Bush Goliath in the container with the cage already on it. I will put it out on warm days, and bring it in at night.

I learned to wait to plant the majority of plants outside till after April Fools Day. The few that go outside before then get covered at night with gallon jugs that have the bottoms cut off. The lids go on at night, and are taken off during the day. I wipe the inside of the dry if I see condensation on the inside before dark when I put the caps on.

After uncovering I found several tomato plants dead, but many that had just a few limp leaves. I'm sure the freeze set them back but at least I think they will make it.
The pepper plants flopped over and have not unflopped so it will be a few days before I think I'll really know whether they are going to live.
The big plus were the new dwarf citrus I had put in the ground just a few days before, they look like they are OK.
My condolences to all who lost plants in this surprise freeze, as I said when I went in the house that afternoon it was 70, next morning it was 28/29 which was about 4 or 5 degrees lower than the forecast.

I re-examined today. They still look wilted and the top shoots look brown. I'm thinking they won't bounce back. Well, I guess the good news is, there is still time to go get some seedlings and start over. I'm just sad that the early harvest probability is gone now.

Chance are that the mains will die but they will branch out shoots from every leaf node. I would give them some time.

The freeze damage was more insidious than I thought. I lost about 1/3 of my tomato plants but they hung on for a while.
Oddly, most of the pepper plants survived. Maybe because they were smaller and closer to the ground?

If the plants are nice and big, they may have survived. Last year our first freeze hit in mid September, and was probably around the same temps as you had, maybe a couple degrees either way. Nevertheless, I did not cover my tomatoes at all. The leaves on the very top and on the outside edges were burned, but the rest were untouched. I didn't get any more production (it was the end of the season) but the plants themselves lived for a good while longer.

The 1/3 that did not make it have lived for a couple weeks but are deteriorating and dying, I've pulled up a couple that finally keeled over.