Christy,
From experience I can tell you that it is possible. I planted 8 seedlings outside well before frost was over in my area only because I had a choice to plant them or throw them out. I basically ran out of room in my seed starting area. All but 1 totally died back to the stem. The ones that died back to the stem are about a foot tall and doing rather well. They are behind the ones that I kept inside but still looking good. Now I have 31 tomatoes plants rather than the expected 24.
Guess it's possible....

I have had deer eat the top third off of plants and they have come back. From your city listed, it looks like you are in the NE. Personally, I would swing by the local Garden center and try something which is healthy versus trying to make these work. Who knows, maybe you will find a new favorite.

Good Luck...

I'd return them and ask for a refund - no reason for you to have to pay for plants shipped in that condition. Reputable suppliers will gladly refund. Then replace them with new locally purchased plants. Sure some of these MAY come back but some may not and they will delay your production by as much as 4-6 weeks.

So I guess it all boils down to how badly you want these particular variety plants and if the hassle is worth it to you.

Good luck.

Dave

Ok, I know this is a wierd question. This year, I did not get to plant as many tomato seeds as I would have liked with my 2 year old in his terrible stage. Since I could not find varieties that I really wanted locally, I bought some heirlooms through the mail. I have received the plants, they are all on the tall, leggy, side,I am sure from being stuck in a greenhouse.
While the people seemed to take great care and time to pack each plant separately, the whole plant rolled in moist newspaper,I am not sure that this was the best way. When I received the plants and unwrapped them, several plants had all their leaves severely wilted, beyond repair. Not from disease or anything, but I think from the leaves laying on the moist paper for several days, it made them wilt. But the stems of the tomato plants are still very stury with no problems. So my question is, is it possible for these tomato plants to grow new leaves from the healty stem, even though there are no leaves currently on the stems? Talking to the lady who sent them to me, she says they will be fine and will sprout out new leaves from the stem. She seemed like as if it was no big deal. So I wanted to know what you guys think since I cannot seem to find anything on this subject. Even if new leaves will sprout, will it take a long time for it to happen, pushing the harvest dates further back? Thanks every one!

WOW! Exact same thing happened to me, same source I bet too! I have a Black Plum that looks deader than dead. The others are about 16 inches tall and very leggy, a couple leaves on each of the others is dry like the Black Plum, could this be something serious and able to take over the others? Does the bad one need to be separated from the others? With the plants being so leggy just plant them as deep as possible or should I just start over? I would prefer to have strong, healthy plants if I am going to put the time in. I guess lesson learned though.
Thanks!

Although I have never shipped a tomato plant or had one shipped to me, I do have a lot of experience with ordering other specialty plants for early march delivery.

What I can tell you is if you did not receive the plants on a Wednesday or worst case Thursday, that is part of the problem.

A professional shipper starts packing Monday AM for a 2 day air afternoon pick-up. You should receive your plants wed. This means 48 hours in the box.

Anyone who ships later in the week could be stuck with plants in the box over the weekend :(

thankyou guys for the info! Yes, I did recieve them on a Wednsday, Shipped on a Monday.
Chefmark, would really like to know if you bought them from the same place I did, email is bonechickchris@aol.com ,
It does seem like a lot of work to keep these plants going. She said she would give me a refund and I sent her a pic and she said they were far from gone? Personally, I think a plant with no leaves is pretty gone!
I guess that is what I get for thinking I found a place to get heirlooms cheap. Next time I will spend the extra money and get real healty plants. I rather have afew healthy plants than a bunch of not healthy, which unfortunately I am stuck with now. Thanks! Christy

I know this conversation happened 9 years ago but I DID order from a reputable place whose been in business going toward the 150 year mark and very well known. My first tomato plant- Gladiator- was shipped during the week and arrived on my door step on a Monday. The 2 pepper plants were beautiful but not so with the tomato which was broken and the leaves wilted or turning brown. Enter the free replacement- even worse shape. The replacement now has no leave whereby the first one has 3 or 4 very weak and oddly colored leaves. Nonetheless both are going in the ground. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I will say Burpee sent me the replacement and because that lost all its leaves they reimbursed my cost.

I mail-ordered some of my tomatoes this year too! When they arrived they were in sad pathetic shape. The leaves were curled and had yellow edges. The plants look like they took a tumble. But, once I got them under the grow lights and started the hardening off process, they came right back. I planted four of the six and have been surprised by how well they have done. I was concerned that maybe I ordered too late in the year and received the nursery dregs. But, all in all, I'm happy with how they are doing.

I know this is super old but I have a question.ok so I bought some tomato plant a couple months ago. They were very healthy and we got a good bit of tomatoes from them. They started to get Brown from the bottom up and die well I thought they were dead and yesterday I went out to pull them up and throw them out and I noticed on the bottom of one there is a lot of new green branches and leaves forming. The top of the other one is also coming back to life it seems. Nothing changed except when I thought they were dead I stopped watering them. Is it possible these could still produce some more tomatos? Like they grew back almost overnight it seems.

The same thing is happening to my tomato plants. What was your outcome? Thanks.