Gardening Question - Mooresville,IN

If the tomatoes had frost on them they are gone and need to be replanted. I'm not familiar with the eggplant or soy beans.

To prevent the tomatoes from dieing in a frost put four gallon jugs of water around them and place a blanket over the top. The water will supply some heat. The blanket or cloth will tend to keep the cold air off them You could take and ice chest an turn it upside down over your plant. Put the gallon milk jugs full of water inside the ice chest with the tomatoes.

Before I moved to California, I would put a blanket over the tomato plant in the fall to protect it from the first frost. That would usually give me another 2 to 4 weeks of tomatoes. When the first hard frost was coming, I'd pull the tomato plants up by the roots and bring them into a cool Garage and hang them upside down. About 75% of the tomatoes would ripen in the garage.

Good luck and happy gardening.

Probably best to start new ones. Tomato and eggplant don't tend to take well to frost. They may come back, but... probably they won't.

If there's danger of frost again, you could actually wrap them in Christmas lights (the tiny ones) overnight. Or if not, you could also lay a light tarp over them. If it isn't a severe frost, that should help.

The weather is so weird this year. I hope it gets warm soon!

It sometimes happens to the best of us. You'll probably have to plant fresh plants. I don't start my own seeds, but I get tomato and other veggie plants from Home Depot or a local nursery. Next time there's a possibility of a frost, throw a sheet over the plants you want to protect. If it's windy, hold the sheet down with a few rocks or cinder blocks. Take the sheet off next day once it warms up a bit.

if you're worried about the cold, you could put some plastic wrap over them to create a sort of green house effect. The sun will warm it in the day and keep the heat in at night. I did that with mine, but then the squirrels found out there was a garden buffet on my porch and now I have new issues to battle with.

I have always heard the "old timers" say never plant anything before Mother's Day, that way you should be clear of any frost issues. We, however, had some plants come back up early this year because of the unusually warm weather and wanted to save them - we've had several frosts already. We take a old bed sheet and drape over them, or even light-weight towels, even plastic bags. Anything that will not crush them, but keep the frost off of them. It will help insulate them, as well. As for whether they are salvageable or not, the next few days will tell. Some plants are heartier than others. Our tomatoes have been amazingly resilient. Good luck!

Dont' plant so early, especially in the midwest! Unwritten rule.....not before Mother's Day. If you do, then keep them inside at night or cover them up at night to prevent frosting of your plants.

I'm not sure where Mooresville is but I'm in Ohio near the lake and we don't put any warm weather plants(tomatoes and eggplants are both warm weather and can't take a frost) until around Memorial Day. That way we are assured that they will not have a frost and die. Sheets do work but I started both my eggplants and tomatoes from seed last year and they grow quite well inside until it is warm enough for them to go outside. There are cold weather crops that actually like it colder and can take a frost (spinach, leafy greens, peas, broccoli) A great resource for gardening is the 'old farmers almanac' they give you dates and all sorts of gardening info.