This is my first garden year - Does the overnight frost warning mean I have to pick all my tomatoes??? I'm in east Van - low altitude. Help!
It gets too cold and damp for tomato plants in this region well before frost is expected, late blight for instance can be quite a problem. Frosts will definitely destroy your plants. If yours are not deteriorating yet maybe you would like to cover them with a makeshift shelter, that seems possibly adequate to delay frost - or pick all the remaining fruits (that look far enough along to ripen off the vine) and bring them in. Season can be extended by weeks with the use of shelters. Unheated coverings will not exclude serious cold, of course.
I'm closer to UBC than you, but still not at a very high altitude. Not higher enough than you for there to be any real temperature difference between us, anyway. For years I have lost my tomatos long before this. Not because of the cold, but because late blight kills them This year I built a structure over the tomatos, draped plastic over it, and the results are incredible, No rain on them and so no blight, as I expected, but to my surprise no repercussions from the temperature either - although it goes down at night to anything from 6.5 degrees to 8.5 degrees centigrade. I am still harvesting cherry tomatos today.
