Can I Save My Tomato Plants After a Frost?

Tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum) are tender plants that can't withstand a heavy frost, but slightly frosted plants may recover. Usually grown as annual plants, tomatoes can grow year round in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 10 through 11. At 40 degrees Fahrenheit and lower temperatures, tomato plants' leaves, stems and fruits suffer damage, but you can help save the plants by protecting them from further frosts.

Young tomato plants are especially vulnerable to cold weather. Signs of frost damage include soft and discolored stems and leaves, and sunken leaf spots that are tan to brown. The spots usually appear between leaf veins. If the damage isn't extensive -- affecting only leaves' outer edges for example, then the plants probably will recover. Move the plants to a frost-free area if they're in containers, and cover plants in the ground with sheets of fabric if more frosts threaten. If the stems below the lowest leaves are discolored and soft, then little hope exists for the plants. Discard them and immediately sow or buy new tomato plants for a crop that year.

You may be able to save mature tomato plants that suffered a late frost. The average annual last frost date is only a rough guide to when to expect the late frost, and sometimes late spring or early summer frosts catch gardeners by surprise. If your mature tomato plants have frost damage, inspect them carefully. Those that collapsed completely can't be saved, and you may have to rely on kind neighbors for homegrown tomato fruits that year. If, however, your mature plants are still standing, tidy them by removing their frost-damaged leaves. Pinch or prune them at the nearest point where healthy tissue begins. Wipe the blades of the pruning shears in rubbing alcohol before and after pruning to help prevent the spread of pests and diseases.

If your tomato plants survived a light frost, then keeping an eye on the weather forecast and protecting them the next time frost is expected should be worth the effort. Water the tomato plants' soil the evening before a frost, and cover the plants with newspapers, old bedsheets, fabric tarps, floating rows covers or a similar material before the sun sets. Spread the material over the tomato plants' stakes, and don't allow the material to touch the plants because touching reduces the level of frost protection. An option to protect young tomato plants is to wash and cut the tops off plastic milk containers and place the containers over the plants before the night's frost. Remove the containers the following morning when the frost has thawed; doing so will prevent the young plants from heating in the sun's rays.

The growing season for tomato plants is a few short months in some areas of the United States, but you can harvest tomato fruits up to and just after the first fall frost. Tomato plants produce best when daytime temperatures are 70 to 75 F during the day and 65 to 68 F at night. At temperatures below 60 F, production slows or stops, and the plants don't grow or produce when temperatures are cold enough to develop frosts. After the first fall frost, harvest all the fruits. Cut off all the fruits' frost-damaged parts and eat the undamaged portions fresh, or save undamaged fruits to eat as green tomatoes or to allow to ripen. Green tomatoes will ripen when spread in a single layer in a dark, airy location where the temperature doesn't fall below 55 F. Fruits from a frosted tomato plant shouldn't be canned because they may be unsafe.