This year I put out 16 Celebrity Plus from Johnny's, 8 Supersweet 100 also from Johnny's and 8 Rosella Purple from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. Starting February 11, I transplanted 2 Celebrity per day as the 10 day forecast continued to reveal good upcoming weather, then stopped at 8. Those plants are now up to 22 inches high and blooming (second photo). The yardstick is stuck in the tallest plant (first photo). All the remaining plants were transplanted on February 26. They are about a week behind. Seeds had been started on January 11 in half gallon milk cartons with about 3 inches of Foxfarm Ocean Forest topped off with about an inch of seed starter mix under Black Magic grow lights.
About a week ago, the forecast started calling for 37 degrees last night. That forecast continued to drop little by little until yesterday morning it was calling for 33 degrees overnight, then 32 by afternoon. I prepared for the worst, purchasing 12 3 foot stakes and covered all except 4 plants in a different location with some heavy blankets and a couple lighter blankets. When I woke around 5 am, the temperature map showed 29 degrees in a number of nearby spots. When I took the blankets off around 9:30 am, there was still frost on a thinner blanket with damage to some leaves. All plants under the heavier blankets did well. The 4 plants in a different location (all Supersweet 100 – third photo) didn't survive the overnight freeze. Some leaves had already been burned by the wind and cold the day before.
This is my second season growing tomatoes. It's off to a better start than last year, as the weather has been pretty ideal since early to mid February with the exception of the past couple days. Central Texas had record heat in the upper 90s on March 15 followed by the freeze last night. The Farmer's Almanac shows last spring frost here on March 15 with 30 percent probability of a later frost.
by HiggsonofSnell
4 Comments
Glad to see the majority of them survived. I’m a few hundred miles south of you, and luckily we didn’t get below freezing. Any particular reason you went with those varieties? I order from Johnny’s too, generally for disease resistance, but there are so many to choose from!
10 of my 27 are gone. I over planted but the varieties I really wanted to try died which feels like a tale as old as time. I started a few replacements but I’m probably too late(?)
You just barely dodged the fatal frost bullet and only because of what you did in preparation, nice work! Your plants are a little bigger than mine.
I really lucked out as I didn’t do anything to protect my tomatoes and our nearest official temperature gauge 3 miles away showed 28°, but yet my tomatoes had zero issues. My garden got to 35° for the low.
Hopefully, we are done until the fall on the frosts.
I lost most of my tomatoes in this freeze last night, even though they were covered with buckets. It wasn’t enough, probably because the plants were already stressed by being out in the cold wind all day. Fortunately, I have spares with which to replant. NE Texas.