You might have just gotten some plants and stuck them in the ground and are hoping they do well and the soil warms up soon... well, that is ok sometimes, and especially with sungolds, and some past varieties, but not with the bigger varieties. You need to protect your babies from the cold weather, and help them keep upright and keep their leaves from touching the soil... I know that is a lot to think about all at once, but you need to start thinking about your tomato plants' needs. 1) Warm soil- you can use clear plastic to warm up the soil before you plant. Some people think that black plastic will heat up the soil, but test showed that the plastic itself heated up, but the soil underneath did not... The clear plastic really does work. 2) Warm air at night and protection form too much moisture- there are many ways to make a hoop house or temporary greenhouse out of greenhouse plastic and hoops made out of bent irrigation pipes over rebar and clips to hold the plastic in place. You can rig up some sort of angled windows supported by something sturdy like framing lumber, but be careful to make it strong enough- you wouldn't want it to fall on the plants or an innocent bystander...
If you have questions or want to purchase some of the greenhouse plastic in lengths of 20' @ 4$/ft, let me know. It is the 6mil greenhouse plastic that farmers use. email me at jayne@sistersageherbs.com- Only in the Seattle Area please!! I will be adding pictures as I get the tomato garden pictures together this season.
peace-
Jayne
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