I’ll be planting my tomatoes and potatoes outside tomorrow and today. All fear of cold is gone. I bought tomato plants so I’ll have a head start! When do yours go in the ground?
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Around here mid May is the official date. I usually push my luck and get them in at the end of April.
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Our long range forecast is for warmer weather so I’m going to plant a few tomatoes and okra today. I have extra plants so they can be easily replaced if needed.
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I keep mine in pots until around 2nd week of May or so. I have not seen any growth difference in the ground vs in the 1gal pot.
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It’s so hard waiting til the second week of May, but that’s when the chances if frost drop below 10%. Average last frost date is next week. But, it stays chilly enough that nothing will really get going until May anyway. If I put them out, they just kind of sit there and do nothing.
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My garden is in a super warm spot on a south slope right by my house. I can plant a lot earlier with that. But at this point I am just doing my tomato grafts so it will be a few weeks… late April.
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It’s snowing this morning and I just started my tomatoes yesterday. It will be mid May or later this year.
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I have mine i 1 gallon pots and will wait till the first really warm spell that comes by after Mid April so I have warm soil.
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If I had plants of one of the 58-60 day tomatoes, I’d plant today. (And be prepared to cover if need be the next several days.)
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My first three went in the ground yesterday, but that was mostly because I didn’t have enough 1 gal pots to pot up all the starts I had in trays. Tomatoes get pretty stunted in the cool PNW spring even if we are probably past our last frost now, so I usually wait for a warm stretch in the forecast around late April. Most of them will go in the ground near the end of the month, though this year I’m also planning to try a few in the greenhouse.
I noticed that after a 74°F day last week a bunch of cherry tomato volunteers are popping up outside already, if those count. I’ll be thinning them later to just the two or three most vigorous in their corner of the garden.
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Mid May is the target in these parts. I’m just about to start the seeds indoors. They don’t really want anything lower than 50°F, so if I wait until the end of May to plant them out, I’ll probably have better luck. Traditionally, I kill houseplants and tomatoes think they are houseplants if I try to keep them inside too long, so the actual date will be determined by when the first one starts to act like a teenager.
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a month…my seeds just sprouted.
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mid june here. 
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Here with springtime temps bouncing below 50F, it’s way too early! Not until nighttime temps are holding above 50F, and out seedlings have been hardened off outside for a few hours each day, will we risk outdoors growing. Our greenhouse is still below 50 each night, so that will be our first stage move. This week we plan to get ready to transplant our 2-4” seedlings into a deeper container in the greenhouse once we get nighttime temps steady above 50F there. If you go outside too soon, the cold will stunt them taking weeks for a seedling to recover. Waiting a few extra weeks for us.
Dennis
Kent, wa
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In Portland OR, tomatoes planted in-ground in late May look the same on July 4th as any tomatoes planted out earlier. The ground is just too cold here for early-planted tomatoes. Snow elevation is 1,000 feet all this week.
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Last frost here is supposed to be May 5th. The reality is some years we have snow until around May 20th though it is rare. It is tempting to start plants there than trees and bushes now because you go outside now during the daytime and it will be 70 but our nights are still generally around the 30s and this week will even be dipping into the 20s at 29 degrees a day or two. So we generally plant any annuals mid May to June just because annual plants go on sale in June here.
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That’s excellent timing, Scott. My general rule is to keep an eye on the ten day forecast and the temperature of the dirt in my beds. The tomatoes and peppers won’t do anything until the temperature of the dirt I put them in is 70F anyway. So, in the mid south, mine won’t go into the boxes until the last few days of April at the earliest.
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Smart move, Dennis. Sounds like the voice of experience. Dirt needs to be 70F as well or those plants will just sit there.
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Around May 12 is our official last frost date—usually sometime around there—earlier, if I think I can get away with it. I’ve been potting tomatoes (and peppers, eggplants and ground cherries) up into gallons this week.
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