Death by frost or frying?

[Samuel1988]

Afternoon all,

My cucumbers, tomatoes etc have all come up and, due to the recent cold nights, I have kept them in a poly-greenhouse within my polytunnel (frost has killed off tomatoes earlier in the year in the tunnel).

Trouble is I will be away from my plot for some time (3-5days) so I was wondering should I keep these crops in the greenhouse within the poly and risk being fried (and what can I do to reduce the chance of this happening) or leave them out of the smaller greenhouse in the poly and risk being hit by a cold snap?

Will putting my potted up tomatoes in a tray with an inch of water within the second poly be enough to stop any death by overheating?

Has anyone experience anything similar?

Advice please

Samuel

[Alison]

It's a difficult one and one of the biggest risks with putting thing out early. I'm fortunate enough to have a small greenhouse at home so can make use of that at this time of year and am still able to drag things back inside if necessary. that said I only put my tomatoes in there overnight for the first time last night and nothing else tender is in there at all. Are you able to get somebody to throw some fleece or something over the plants when you're not there if a frost is forecast?

[BertieFox]

We are almost at the 'safe' period when all danger of frosts will be over. I would have thought that West London was warmer than many other areas. What is wrong with doing what you suggest by standing the plants in a large tray of water, but leaving the polytunnel doors open? That should prevent it getting too hot.

The chances of a frost severe enough to affect tomatoes inside a polytunnel now in early May are very remote. It would take several degrees of frost to do that.

But a closed polytunnel in sunny weather can reach very high temperatures that would damage the plants no matter how much water they have.