Some of the plants are maybe a little big for it, but what if I just bought gallon jugs of water to dump and put the jugs over them? Would it hurt the bigger ones if were pressed against the tops of the jugs?

Wrapping the cages works. One of the ladies wrapped her cages with a light plastic about 3' high and it really helped the plants. I didn't think it would but I was wrong. So get some cheap painter's plastic and some shipping tape and do a quick round or two and be done with it. When it gets hot, cut it off and let them free again.

I really wouldn't worry about 37 degrees. It won't help the plants but it shouldn't hurt them. One dangerous thing about wrapping the cages - if the following day it turns sunny and warm, you can bake the plants in a matter of a couple of hours unless you want to poke holes in the top and sides to let air through.

Mike

Well, I wrapped black plastic around them, but only about 18 inches high (taller than the plants). Tonight it's supposed to get down to the low 40s and rain, rain all day tomorrow, then upper thirties and clear overnight on Monday. So I was thinking about leaving them as is with just the wrap tonight, then tomorrow night putting a tarp over the top of the cages. The tarp should overlap the plastic so they will be mostly covered that way, with maybe a little gap at the ends.

Or maybe the forecast will change completely tomorrow and I won't have to worry about it:). Thanks for your help guys.

37 and clear weather, cover and hope your weatherman is right. Mix rain with it... late blight wiped out most of casual gardeners around here two years ago.

Once it starts, all you can do is bag your sick plants and hope your neighbors do the same.

I covered mine with 5 gal. buckets. High temp. today is 58 and supposed to drop again tonight. Will it hurt to leave the buckets in place till Thurs. around noon when the temp is to be about 68?

Could get really hot under the buckets at 68 or even 58 degrees. Can't you just cover them this afternoon? What's the temp supposed to be tonight?

We're predicted to hit 25 tonight, got sleet and a little snow (just a coating) last night. But I don't have anything planted out yet. We got almost an inch of rain yesterday, I haven't even planted peas.

I wrap mine in floating row cover and cover the whole cage (you can get a big sheet and cut them down). It really works wonders.

This is an old story that can repeat.

First, 37F night low is not going to harm tomato plants. One thing to understand is that the night low is just for a short time, maybe for an hour, NOT all night long.

Second. With a cage, there are many possibilities, wrapping the cage with plastic, saran wrap, sheet. Or inverting an empty pot, bucket of the pant.

I have planted some of my tomatoes about 10 days ago and since then we have has several night that temps dipped to 38F. And I did not do anything for them as protection. No problem here.

This post was edited by seysonn on Wed, Apr 16, 14 at 14:16

Depends on how big they are, hardened off or not, how long you plan to keep covered and with what. Sounds like Betterviewll wanted to leave them covered for more than 24 hours while temps were 58-68. It was the OP years ago who mentioned 37 degrees, we don't even know how low the temp is going to get for Betterviewll tonight.

Probably would have been better to start a new thread giving that info.

I live in a valley and it always gets colder than predicted. When the forecast is in the thirties that is too cold for comfort. Old sheets from yard sales and row covers are good. Dogs will think you made a bed and lie on them if there aren't cages or something to protect them.

This post was edited by helenh on Thu, Apr 17, 14 at 12:11

Heres a photo of my tomatoes in cages wrapped with row covers. They made it through two nights of temps in the mid-30s and went on to produce very well. We discussed this in another thread I'll link to from last year.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomatoes at 37 degrees

I used to use wall o waters and other "warmers", but now I have my doubts. It seems to me that they get stunted for the whole season by being chilled just once. So, I think it is better to just wait a couple weeks. Let the tomatoes be transplanted into warm soil on warm days.

So many seeds planted directly outdoors after it is warm seem to catch up and surpass those planted inside and transplanted out too early. Best to plant them inside and delay transplanting a bit...