There is a thread over on the Vegetables forum right now about the problems that happened with this even in zone 5. You might want to read it first. :)

It's your choice of course but personally I think it is a death sentence - for the plants that is - to set tomato plants out now in your zone.

Dave

I think Dave is right unless you are going to place heating pads in your garden.

Put a big container of water, like a 55 gallon drum, next to them, on the north side. It will help because it will absorb heat during the day and and create a micro environment for low temps. If you put clear plastic over the barrel and plants it will work even better.

I do this every year to get early tomato's. I will try to post pics tomorrow of mine. They are growing great even though we had temps in the 30's since I planted them.

Wertach you are in zone 7. The OP is in zone 4. Bit of a difference in air temps not to mention soil temps.

Not to mention have to round up a 55 gallon drum for each plant.

Dave

Not to mention you could probably buy transplants for less than the cost of the water charges to fill those barrels too. If the barrels cost anything you're losing even more. Not a very cost or labor efficient idea IMO.

If they are not hardened off, they're history. If they are hardened off, they might survive as long as frost (or freeze) doesn't get them, but they will grow painfully slow. We had a low of 23F last night!

I'm in zone 6 an I wouldn't even dream of putting my tomatoes out in the garden yet. Even if they make it the stunted plants will be out preformed by ones that stay inside. Try getting a big cart on wheels and put them out in the day and roll them in to some room at night.

um, I talked to my dad yesterday, who is 5 hours north of me, in zone 5. (they keep saying I'm zone 6 but I don't believe it). He said it snowed yesterday. What are you going to do if it snows?

What's your planting day, like Memorial Day?

If you've got a bunch of plants to throw away, you might try putting one in a milk jug IN WARM DIRT with good vents in the sunshine (I think this won't work either)--but I think that not only is the air too cold but the dirt is too cold. I wouldn't be surprised if in zone 4 you still have near-frozen dirt several inches down.

I just took my plants out yesterday--here is my 10 day forecast, and my "safe plant out date" is mother's day (2 weeks, 2 days from now)

59/58 (severe storm warning with possible hail)
70/54
65/57
75/62
71/57
66/45 (I usually cover/bring in if under 50)
65/48 (I usually cover/bring in if under 50)
63/51
62/48 (I usually cover/bring in if under 50)

When people plant out early, they always warm the soil first--they put out a hoop house with nothing in it, a wall-of-water with nothing in it, or something like that.

You COULD put a seedling in a pot (and pot up as needed) and carry it out every day that it is warm and letting it sit in a window when it's below 55.

It's almost time! Hang in there!

Just give your extras away to someone who may appreciate them and give them a good home.

Or you can send them to me. I will pay postage....
:) JK

I have some one inch tomato sprouts in my garden. They were wintersown so they were born in the colder weather.

I just found them today. Mine are tiny but they are used to the cold :)

Maybe you can give some plants to neighbors, nursing homes, brownie troop, food pantry...etc.

Maybe one of those can grow the tomatoes and then you would know your seedlings were going somewhere for good use.

If you want to experiment why not try a couple. It can be your own experiment. I thought about making my own mini cold frame/green house like a small box to cover the plants in my garden. It might not work for me but at least I had a project to do until the real spring hits here...

Karen

I've managed to find a way to keep them. I'm in process of trying to find an old window or two to construct a cold frame which would help free up some space on my grow light stand.