When should I plant tomatoes? The answer depends upon where you live. Gardeners use a tool called a planting zone map to determine what zone they live in. Using the zone map a gardener can determine the planting times for various vegetables and flowers and the types of perennial flowers, shrubs and trees hardy in the area. So the first thing you need to determine is your United States Department of Agriculture Planting Zone. You do this by using the USDA Zone Map.
The next step in determining the answer to the question of “When should I plant tomatoes?” is to next determine the Frost Free Date for your area. A table for this, based upon planting zone, is located here. It pays to remember that this chart gives you the date of the AVERAGE last frost in your area. That means that, based on records kept over a fifty to seventy year record, about 50% of the time the last frost will occur around the date listed on the chart. In fact, there is a 20% chance that frost will occur a week after the date listed, and a 10% chance that frost will occur two weeks after the date listed. Even three to four weeks after the date listed, there is still a slight chance of frost.
Tomatoes are a tropical plant which require warm temperatures for both seed germination and for the plant to thrive. This means warm air and soil temperatures. Soil temperatures below seventy degrees will slow the plants growth down, so getting the plants in the garden when it is cold is of no benefit, unless you plan to take extraordinary measures. In fact, too early planting will retard, or even destroy you tomato plants. So the answer to the question “When should I plant tomatoes?” is to wait at least three to four weeks after the date listed on the chart as your last average frost free date.
So “When should I plant tomatoe seed?” The answer to that question is to first determine your outdoor planting date, using the process outlined above, and figure back six to eight weeks. The resulting date is the best time for you to plant your tomato seed.
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