How low can you go
 

I was curious how early I could plant out my 5 gallon buckets this year and so I planted 8 plants out on April the 13th versus last year not planting out till May 24th!

I was getting nervous this past weekend with the forecast in the 30s for this past Sat/Sun/Mon nights so as an experiment I put garbage bags over the plants just hoping they would survive. The night temps turned out to be 37, 33, and 38 last night. I put the bags over the buckets in the evening before nightfall and removed the bags the next day after it warmed up (usually around 11am).

Looking at the plants today they survived quite nicely! Now as long as they continue to grow I'll be alright!

Al

Last year I planted tomatoes out on the first weekend of April and lucked out with no late frosts. This year I am holding off (as I am expanding the garden and haven't gotten dirt yet for the new beds). However, there are a lot of people around me that have pulled the trigger and are in the ground... some of them since March.

I tried my best to make an educated decision, I went to this site below and saw that last year we had 4 days in April under 32 degrees and so I thought I would take a chance...

[url]http://www.climate-zone.com/climate/united-states/north-carolina/asheville/[/url]

You can use sprinkler or just use grave candles(with cover) beside your plants. Some candles will last 8-12 hours

last season with the warm weather i planted out april 15. by june 15 these were my SWCs. i took plastic cling wrap and wrapped around the cages a couple of nights when it went into the 30's. this season has been much colder. i'm hoping to plant out this week

forgot to attach

here is may 12th