Whodaz: I also live in a zone 7 climate, perhaps a bit cooler than yours, but I never set my tomato plants out until mid-May. I plant on black plastic to attract heat to the roots, but give tomatoes no other protection. There are techniques such as cloches, walls-o-water, reemay covers etc. that can allow earlier setting out, but I am not in that much of a rush and prefer to let nature take her course. If your tomatoes are sitting out there by their lonely selves with no protection, they are doomed if the temperature reaches 30 degrees or below at night. It may not kill them deader than a doornail, but will set them back enough that you will wish you had waited another 5-6 weeks because they will never really recover. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Are you planning to heat it? If not, the shed will probably stay well above freezing on Sunny Days, but it will quickly go down to the outside temperature at night. On cloudy days it will be similar to the outside temperatures. I donÂt think you have enough angle for the greatest sun exposure or enough sunlight that thermal mass could help very much. I've done what you are hoping to do, but I used polycarbonate for the south roof and the design was that the roof extended to 4 feet from the ground. Just a thought and you probably don't want to do this, but you could build nice cold frames on the outside of the shed, using the south outside wall as its back wall. nice venting possiblities too. ~tom

Dody, You can leave them in the cold frame if it stays above freezing all night with the lid closed. Tomatoes can freeze at temperatures of 32 degrees and lower, although it generally takes about 2 hours exposure, in my experience, to kill the plants back to the ground. Less than two hours exposure may damage them and set them back, but generally won't kill them unless frost also occurs. Frost is a different issue. Frost can damage plants and, if the conditions are right (or, maybe it would be more accurate to describe them as "wrong"), frost can form at 37 or 38 degrees. I've heard it can form at 39 degrees but haven't witnessed that personally. I have witnessed a killing frost at 37 or 38 degrees and see it here just about every year. So, always protect the tomato plants from the possibility of frost anytime temps are expected to go below 40 degrees. Having said all the above, I don't like to expose tomato plants to too much air temperature below 40 degrees. Once they are exposed to cold air temps, their growth will slow down and stall with the result being they'll often set fruit much later than they would have if never exposed to those cool temps. Currently my tomato plants are outside most of the day or all day (less time is spent outdoors on very windy days when the wind exceeds the upper 20s) and back inside either the garage (well-insulated) or sunporch at night. If the temperatures are expected to drop below 30 degrees, they come from the sunporch into the house, but I leave the big plants in the garage because it stays warmer. One thing to understand about tomato plants is that while some limited cold exposure early in their life is good for them, too much is not and will stunt them. Since my goal is to harvest tomatoes as early as possible (I usually harvest the first tomatoes from the early container-grown tomato plants in late April and from the in-ground plants in late May), I avoid letting them be exposed to any temperatures cold enough to make them stunt or stall. That's my personal preference because the earlier I harvest, the greater the overall harvest will be. If you don't mind a later harvest or less fruit per plant, you don't have to be extra-cautious about exposing the plants to cold temperatures as long as you protect them from freeze damage and frost damage. For anyone who's pretty new to raising tomatoes, you should know that hot temperatures shut down pollination and fertilization of the large tomatoes, with 'large' in this case being anything more than an oz. or two. Thus, it is advisable to get good early fruit set before the high temps begin negatively impacting pollenization and fertilization. The temperatures that impede pollination can vary but basically high temps 92 to 95 or higher will do the trick as will low temps above 72 or so. Having high humidity in combination with those temps is even worse. So, if prolonged exposure to cold temps stunts your plants or makes them stall, then by the time they get going again, they may not get good fruitset before the heat arrives. That's the main concern with too much cold exposure above and beyond the plants possibly freezing. Dawn

That's a shame. Our winters are off and on, and most nurseries have them already, and only one that I know of keeps them inside a greenhouse that's heated. It was about 45 last night and will be probably below 40 tonight. I have 5 planted, and am covering them at night with pots, and the rest are still in pots or seed trays, and I'm bringing them in at night. I'll see how those that are already planted do this spring. I'm tired of not getting more than a few tomatoes.