Horticultural fleece help please

[Lisasbolt]

I have just checked the weather and it is now starting to get chilly, next week we are expected to have night temperatures of 5 brrrrrr, i don´t know if it will as the weather forecast is always dodgy the week before.
I am going on a hunt tomorrow for some fleece, as i have courgette and tomatoes growing and i want to keep them going through as much of winter as possible. They are in a PT so that will help.

We are away next month for 4/5 days and if it gets chilly i won´t be here to put the fleece on can i leave it on top of them for the whole time. I know it would not be ideal and maybe help fester disease and bacteria but i thought better than losing them.

I have never used them and not even sure if i can buy them out here so any help always appreciated

[Penellype]

I wouldn't cover them for 5 degrees. If there are any signs of botrytis in the tunnel then I would think that covering plants would make things a whole lot worse, especially if you leave them covered for several days. 5C is not cold enough to kill them although they won't like it very much. We've had a few slight frosts this year and the tomato plants in my friend's greenhouse are still struggling on. We are forecast a possible -2 this weekend and I think that may do for them, but so far the plants that I have lost from the greenhouse have had botrytis which has spread to the stems.

[janzbro]

do you throw it on all winter as soon as it hit zero on a night or is it an on\off affair whenever temps get low?

[Lisasbolt]

I will hopefully only put it on every now and again. Just for those odd couple of cold nights, as i am trying to grow courgettes, tomatoes and peppers throughout the winter. Any seedlings will get brought in at night. Everything else is hardy and will be fine. We rarely get any frost and if we do get the odd light one. First year we had none but last year we had a few, i was not ready and i lost a lot of seedlings. i will not make that same mistake