Is it too early for me toms

[Beso]

How did your bean plants do out in the cold last night?

Seems fine, indeed they has decided to spend another night out under the stars

Yea looked fine, healthy, not sure what I would expect to see if it was not, but it looks a lot healthier than a few of my tomato plants that have remained indoors, that is for sure.

I think there maybe some mini pods on them but I have not really studied how they grow before, I mean I just had a look with a torch and I think I see dead flowers and a mini pod. I was thinking maybe the cold killed the flower, however the leaves look perfectly healthy, nice and green, one has a bit of yellow on it but nothing to worry about, especially when compared to state of a few tomato plants I have indoors!!

If I get round to taking photo's I will be sure to take some of the bean plants.

[BertieFox]

My French beans are struggling to keep going even inside the polytunnel where I have planted them in the bed. But I wonder if we worry too much about tomato plants.

Some years I have started them too early and had to wait too long before they could go outside, with the result that I get terrible looking, yellowish, etiolated plants that I feel I should be putting on the compost heap.

But planted out, after a couple of weeks of good weather and keeping them watered, they grow away and still make fine plants. After a few weeks you can't tell the difference from the good plants.

I have the same dilemma now, as to whether I need to pot on 50 or 60 plants that are under potted until they can be planted out in two or three weeks, or whether I can get away with just feeding them. Repotting means a lot of work and compost....

[Beso]

If you have been watering with tomato feed there should be plenty of nutrients. It's best to put photos up of your own.

Just discovered the batter in my camera/phone is dead!!
I mainly used it as a camera and it drains batteries too fast to me much use as a mobile phone.

So I will have to get a new battery at the very least (could do with a new phone too really! with a better camera on)

[edit] It is not the battery there is a bit of a fault on the phone and I have got it working again. However I have chopped off some of the bad leaves, ie yellow limpy and brown crispy.
The affected plants look a lighter shade of green then the healthy ones. And all plants tend to be greener at the top where the best light is.

I have feeling they may be the cherry tomato types mainly, I will have to check if they have any plastic plant identifier labels in the soil.
Think they will probably recover eventually.

[Guykp57]

Cold in North Wales well below 10c so i put 2 tealight candles under terrecota pots lift temp above 10c help with seedlings.

[Beso]

Cold in North Wales well below 10c so i put 2 tealight candles under terrecota pots lift temp above 10c help with seedlings.

Had two bean plants out last night (pretty big ones, ie 2 feet) I think it dropped to about 6.5C.

Currently it is 7.3C on my thermometer, the weather site says it is 4C with overnight night low of 3C, well that is what it says on the hourly forecast, but the daily one says 2C which is inconsistent with that.


Hence I think I will be leaving my plants out again as I record 7.3C against the 4C it is supposed to me.

Just dropped to 7.2C

Now 7.0C!!

[Beso]

Hmmm, it has been down to 4.9C but it just ticked up to 5C, so I wonder if 4.9 was the low for the night (for me)?
The weather site shows 3C right through to 7AM on the hourly details, but also says 4C on the current temp but 3C on the hourly detail (they can't both be right!!).

I have watched my thermometer tick up from 4.9C or to now 5.3C in the last 15 minutes.

It is amazingly accurate (assuming it is correct!!)

5.4C as I type!!!

Now 5.5C (I'm a slow typer lol)

I wonder if it is getting warmer and we have passed the nightly low?

I guess low is variable and I would expect it coldest just before dawn?
(indeed it is supposed to be just after dawn I just checked).

[Nicos]

There may be varying cloud cover affecting the temperature too....or even wind chill factors affecting your microclimates lowest temperature of the night.
As you say, the lowest temp should be after dawn.

Where are these plants at night...on a table/ floor?

We have a concrete patio which holds heat and slowly gives it off at night, together with heat loss from our granite walls.

It's these sort of things which will be affecting your micro climate.

By the way, where abouts are you located?

[Beso]

There may be varying cloud cover affecting the temperature too....or even wind chill factors affecting your microclimates lowest temperature of the night.
As you say, the lowest temp should be after dawn.

Where are these plants at night...on a table/ floor?

We have a concrete patio which holds heat and slowly gives it off at night, together with heat loss from our granite walls.

It's these sort of things which will be affecting your micro climate.

By the way, where abouts are you located?

They are on a concrete patio near the house close to a big patio window, so they should get heat radiating from the house a bit, plus there are quite a lot of other houses around.

It says 5.7 on the probe now but it is on the ground, I am going to move it a little higher.

I move it higher and at first it went to 6.1C (maybe because I touched the probe) it has howver now dropped to 4.7C and might still be going down!!

4.6C !!

4.5C.

4.4C!!

Location Nottingham!!

[Beso]

I figured out how to set my thermometer to record the highest and lowest temperatures on a daily basic
(had been on a permanent basic (I think it had -1.2C recorded on it since it was last reset).

Anyway the lowest was 3.7C last night, the plant looks pretty fine apart from a few leaves which
blew off, I am pretty sure there is tiny pod forming

[Penellype]

Microclimates can make a big difference. My growhouse is on a patio, with paving slabs acting as a storage heater, and black plant pots also absorbing heat. Last night the temperature inside the growhouse dropped to around zero according to the alcohol thermometer I have in there. The outdoor digital one I keep near the rhubarb, in a corner between a brick wall and a wooden compost bin, recorded 0.2 degrees last night as the minimum. With white frost everywhere this morning I suspect the rhubarb is in about the warmest place, and that the temperature outside the growhouse would have been below freezing.

The good news is that after another shockingly cold night for the time of year tonight, things are set to become warmer, if rather wet and then probably rather windy.

[maverick451]

Although I live in surrey I live in a cold valley (in 2012 an official temp recording of -18C was taken here) even with my heater on in the greenhouse its still only around 7-8 C at night.

Outside its 3-4C,

It will be another month before I put my tomatoes out at night, I will try runner beans in a couple of weeks, if they dotn do well ill start again but might aswell give it a go rather than throwing them away.

[Scarlet]

Maverick, similar here. I live in sunny Wilts but my garden seems to be in a cold dip. ive lost all my courgettes in the GH this week. Just forgot to bring one tray in, I bring in around ten "mushroom trays" every evening. Just slipped up the once

[Beso]

Microclimates can make a big difference. My growhouse is on a patio, with paving slabs acting as a storage heater, and black plant pots also absorbing heat. Last night the temperature inside the growhouse dropped to around zero according to the alcohol thermometer I have in there. The outdoor digital one I keep near the rhubarb, in a corner between a brick wall and a wooden compost bin, recorded 0.2 degrees last night as the minimum. With white frost everywhere this morning I suspect the rhubarb is in about the warmest place, and that the temperature outside the growhouse would have been below freezing.

The good news is that after another shockingly cold night for the time of year tonight, things are set to become warmer, if rather wet and then probably rather windy.

The weather site I look at The Weather Channel

always give conflicting information, the predicted low for the night seems to be always 1C lower than the hourly temperatures given for the night.

So last night one said 2C the other method 3C, however I my digital thermometer
recorded a low of 3.7C

Again for tonight it gives lows of 1C and 2C depending on whether you look at the nightly or hourly low respectively.

My bean plants seemed to have survived last might so I may well leave them out again to night, but that 1C is a little off putting though.

After that the temperature jump right up to for form 7C to 11C for as far as they predict ie to the 10th May. So I will be putting a lot of plants out then. Indeed I will start putting them in the ground, some of the toms are getting very tall not, not far off the top of the window.

[Beso]

Maverick, similar here. I live in sunny Wilts but my garden seems to be in a cold dip. ive lost all my courgettes in the GH this week. Just forgot to bring one tray in, I bring in around ten "mushroom trays" every evening. Just slipped up the once

I don't have a green house but I don't think they make much if any difference at night unless they are heated. You can always start some more courgettes I would imagine.

[Penellype]

The weather site I look at The Weather Channel

always give conflicting information, the predicted low for the night seems to be always 1C lower than the hourly temperatures given for the night.

So last night one said 2C the other method 3C, however I my digital thermometer
recorded a low of 3.7C

Again for tonight it gives lows of 1C and 2C depending on whether you look at the nightly or hourly low respectively.

My bean plants seemed to have survived last might so I may well leave them out again to night, but that 1C is a little off putting though.

After that the temperature jump right up to for form 7C to 11C for as far as they predict ie to the 10th May. So I will be putting a lot of plants out then. Indeed I will start putting them in the ground, some of the toms are getting very tall not, not far off the top of the window.

The one I use is Windfinder which has an hour by hour forecast based on the GFS forecast model. For Nottingham Wind, waves & weather Superforecast Nottingham East Midlands - Windfinder (click on Super Forecast and then show night hours) it shows a minimum of -1 tonight at 6am on the super forecast which it says is more acurate than the 3hr forecast. It does of course depend on how near to the weather station you actually are - searching for Nottingham gives 2 other possible weather stations which could be nearer to you.