Last night in Long Island
 

Its after Mothers Day and I started putting in my tomato plants. The problem is that last night it was really cold and saw some of the bottom leaves on my tomato plants turning yellow. Because it is early in the season, should I worry about it and buy new plants or should wait and see what happens? I sprayed them with Messenger which is supposed to boost plant immunity

Elliot
Long Island, New York

How cold is really cold? I got mine out the other day and it got down to 40 degrees and only one plant stem was looking a little purple but no yellow leaves. I am unfamiliar with what frost bitten tomatoes look like though.

The calendar is only a suggestion of when to plant. Reliable weather websites ([URL="http://www.wunderground.com/"]WU[/URL], [URL="http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Hicksville&state=NY&site=OKX&textField1=40.7638&textField2=-73.5252&e=0"]NOAA[/URL]) should be your guiding force before planting.

[URL="http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=Hicksville%2C+New+York"]Looks like[/URL] you are not getting below 45 at night. If you purchased your plants or grew them yourself and properly hardened them off, then 45 degrees alone would not cause them to have problems. Although you are getting a LOT of rain. I would probably not have planted if I saw that much rain in the forecast.

Personally I imagine you are fine. Mine have seen colder since they have went out. The wind has been a lot harder on them that the cold weather. I did put the ones not in a cold frame under a carport with some protection or up under low trees. But otherwise they just tough it. You can always use plastic buckets and put over them also. Unless you see a them taking a nose dive I wouldn't worry about a few yellow leaves at the bottom. They will grow out of it and in 2 weeks you probably will never know it. JD

Elliot,

I just planted my tomatoes in the ground on Sunday. It was cold last week. It is cold today. Your plant leaves are probably dried out from the wind. They should recover. It has been a real tough year to get the tomatoes out.

I see you too are from Long Island. What the hecks with our weather. I don't remember having such miserable weather here right before Memorial day weekend
Elliot