love your name, goodground.

And I love cucumbers! lol

Thanks... Got it from the parable of the sower!

They should be OK. Since they were set out just today more would depend on how they handled the sun and breezes that you exposed them to. The full sun is more stressful than a night in the 40's for tomatoes.

However, I was surprised how my cucumber and eggplant plants reacted to the cooler (high 40's) wind on our farmers' market stand yesterday. They had been in a greenhouse exposed to full sun and doing well but 10 minutes after we took them from our truck and put them on a stand they began to wilt and I had to put them back in the truck until later in the afternoon when the temperature rose to the 60's.

Barrie, I don't think the OP indicated that the plants were only put out today.

They will be fine. 3 weeks ago I left mine out about 5 days before plant out and it dropped to exactly 32.2 degrees. No harm done.

It's been really cold here and rainy in Southern California, but today I noticed our Big Boy tomato plant purchased at HD has TWO tomatoes! OMG! It's our first! They don't grow here, you know. Too hot. But it's in partial shade. I'm just sad May is so cold.

Have they been outdoors at higher temps all night? If so, I think they should be fine. If they have not been out overnight all night yet tonight might not be the best night.

"If they have not been out overnight all night yet tonight might not be the best night."

I agree with wormgirl. IMO it is futile to ask questions out of context as is so often done for these close temperature calls. It is more important to know the history of your plant. Focus on the temperature differential and wind effect vs. what it had in the house and how long it has had to adjust as mentioned above. Hardening off can be likened to physical training with weights. You shouldn't skip the intermediate steps if you can help it or the "fiber" of the leaf could be damaged, it is never healthy to stress a plant.

Welcome to posting in the tomato forum DesertDance! The New Moon on the 17/18 might have inspired Big Boy's turning over a new leaf ;-) Cheers !

PC

In my climate "hardening off" mostly means getting the plants to get used to cooler temperature. Direct sun exposure is the other.
So to me exposing plants to 47F overnight (2- 3 hours) can be just a part of training.
ALL my plants were hardened off when the night lows were mostly in high 30s to low 40s ( 38 -43).
One thing to remember is that the overnight low last for just couple of hours. Here is scenario:; counting from 10 pm to following 8 Am
.,(50), (49), (48), (48), (47), ( 47), (48), (48) , (49) (,50) .

Sometime I look at our hourly forecast. here it is the one for tonight. 12pm to 9am
56/56/56/55/55/55/54/54/53/53/54/56.
So our low of 53 will last just 2 hours. Really our average low tonight is 56F.

Sey

Thanks everyone. They did just fine. Last night was the final day of their hardening off. I think they can be planted today. It's 80 and sunny today, so think will plant late afternoon, rather than in the heat of the day.

Sounds great! Congrats on getting them in :-)

Posters above are right in that there's no hard-and-fast rule, but from my own experience 47° is doable. Once the plants are in the ground and growing well, I'd heard that a layer of mulch around the plant and a late afternoon watering will keep the ground moist and relatively warm through a chilly night. Not that I've tested this hypothesis myself but it makes sense to me.

GL with the plants once they go in! :)