Tomato leaves showing cold damage

Tomato - cold weather damage

BBC Gardeners' World Magazine

Published: Saturday, 2 March 2019 at 3:19 pm

Learn how to protect your tomato plants from damage by cold spells, in our expert guide.

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Sun-loving tomatoes can suffer outdoors during spells of cold weather, with ideal temperatures from 18-24°C and no lower than 13°C. If it is too cold there might be poor pollination, curling of leaves and the fruits might be scarred, with holes.

Symptoms

Tomato leaves curl up, pollination is poor and the fruit might develop scars and holes.

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Don't plant out tomatoes until temperatures in early summer have risen, especially at night. If in doubt, plant the tomatoes into generous-sized pots so the roots have plenty of room to grow and stand them outside on warm days, bringing them indoors when the temperatures drop. By late-June it's usually safe to leave them outside in a sheltered, south-facing, sunny position. When temperatures dip again at the end of summer and early autumn, give tomato plants overnight protection with horticultural fleece, which should keep them safe until the first frosts.

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