wolfie
Senior Member
Posts: 249
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2008 4:45 pm
Location: Chester, VA

Can Early Girls go out before last frost date?

I have som early girls I want to put out, can they really go out early??

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rainbowgardener
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Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Depends on how much protection you give them and how much they are hardened off. If they have had plenty of time of getting gradually adjusted to the outdoor weather AND they have protection (best would be wall of water see https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=119206&highlight=#119206 and https://www.burpee.com/product/vegetables/tomatoes/tomato+helpers/wall+o%27+water-+1+pkg.++of++3.do?ch=SEM ).

They say the WOW will protect them down to 16 degrees -- I haven't used them and can't vouch for that. Short of the WOW, you can just use poly tunnel and/or hot caps. That will protect them against light frosts.

But no, they are still tomatoes and without protection will be killed by frost.

Short of frost, they don't love cold weather. I put mine out earlier than most people and they don't look like they are doing much at the beginning, but they are establishing roots and so they really take off once it warms up. Just be careful with the hardening off! :)

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Gary350
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Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

Early Girls are an old time favorite I plant a few of them every year. Tomatoes do not like it cold. I typically buy tomatoes in trays and the plants are already good size plants about 6" to 8" tall. We usually have our last frost here about April 21 and I have often planted tomatoes April 1st. I collected about 50 empty 5 gallon buckets from construction sites. I put a bucket over each plant every evening then I remove the buckets every morning. The tomatoes still get a bit cold and the plants turn purple looking but they don't get frost and die. The TV weather man says it can frost at 38 degrees F under the right conditions. Anytime the temperature is going to be below 45 I keep the tomatoes covered at night. I still have to check the weather report every day for a while because we sometimes have had some freak weather where it frosted in May.

This year I may plant about 6 tomatoe plants about April 1st just so we can have some tomatoes in June. I will plant the other 20 tomato plants about 3rd or 4th week of April.



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