If they are broken off there is not much that you can do to save the tops, but the plants will live. The good news is that although you might be set back a little, your plants will recover, and you'll now have 2 tops where the one broke off. Last year we had a nasty hail storm and the tops of several of my plants were severed. Ouch! A month or two later you couldn't even tell where the damage was.

i think i might have over reacte the tops are not broken all the way off maybe like msushed i guessu can say has not broke the stem yet but has a lot of play if that helps to picture the situation

My brother broke one of my beefmaster plants completely off about an inch or two above the soil in the pot as we were moving them outside to harden off. Nothing left but a little stump. It has already started regrowing a new tip/stem.

Are your plants indeterminate varieties or determinates? Makes a big difference in what happens after primary growing tip is broken.

For future reference use a stake or something to support the cover, not the plant itself.

Dave

Indeterminate varieties

If they are just bent over they might live.....just prop them up a little and pray.

They will live. You could even root the tops.

Wow, I just came to this section of the forum to ask the same question - I had a beautiful 1 foot tomatillo plant that fell victim to my clumsiness and the entire plant but for 2 inches of the stem and a single leaf was snapped completely off. Good to know there's some hope.

I just did the same thing to my plant--I tried to train it, but bent the main stem too far and it came off in my hand, right at the joint. What's this about rooting the tops? How do I do that?

Because I've been very lucky, lazy, and cheap I have collected scads of five gallon buckets. They are very easy to take off and to put over plants, even those of some good size, and they are far sturdier than any other method I've seen for protecting plants from frosts. If the weather gets stormy, rocks or bricks will weigh them down well, and they stack well when not being used. Just a thought.