New approach - who can put tomatoes in by May 15?

We put ours in on my wifes birthday----may 16.We cover them with a five gallon plastic pail with the bottom cut out.We live in north iowa near the minnesota border.Works fine for us.

I usually don't put ours out until Mem Day but I might try a little earlier this yr under milk cartons.

Memorial weekend is when I usually put them out.

Last year I did put out 1/2 of my plants 2 weeks early by turning my raised bed into a cold frame. The bed frame sticks up about 6" higher than the soil level it was easy to cover it with plastic. Had to poke a few holds in it so it wouldn't hold water and sage to much when it rained or snowed. I did loose about 1/3 of them to frost.

I'm going to try and combine that with milk cartons/wall-of-water this year to see if works better.

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If the grass looks greener it is probably over the septic tank. - troy n sarah tx

Our existance here is soley for the expoitation of CMG

Living in Ottawa, Canada I would normally plant May 28th or so outside, but maybe as late as June 1.

I invested in a small cold-frame style greenhouse. These can be put up pretty cheap and a 10X20 house would grow a lot of your garden stuff. I found that my unheated house with 1 layer of plastic would buy me almost 1 month in the spring. I put rain barrels with water in the house to buffer the temperatures a bit, but I was able to plant tomatoes in the ground in there by May 1st. I covered them in floating row cover for the first few weeks.

The 2nd benefit is that covered in the greenhouse, the tomatoes did much better. These last couple summers we had way too much rain an the outside tomatoes were almost a waste of space. Tomatoes don't like having their leaves wet (disease) so the greenhouse tomatoes outproduced the outdoor plants by at least 3:1. For some of the heirloom varieties inside the greenhouse was the only way I harvested a fully edible tomato.

Chris

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Chris DeVries
Common Ground CSA
http://csa.amandadevries.com

When I lived in southern California, I put mine in the ground at the end of February. By the end of May I was eating fresh tomatoes everyday.

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"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist"- Archbishop Camara

The Mad Luddite

well i DO plant them in my greenhouse by then..but as i said, it is in my greenhouse

Do most of you go by the last frost date for he zone you are in? It's just an estimate, but their guess is as good as anybodys.

ACK! I'm dying of envy here over those of you that can put out tomato plants so early!! Move over, I'm head'n south!!

Most years we can plant before the end of May, but after last year's hard frost right at the end, I think we'll play it safe and plant after Memorial Day. I have too many plants to cover. Last year I had over 120, and this year I already have 392 seeds started (just tomatoes) and I'll probably be starting a few more before planting time.

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Visit me at http://www.countrylifewithcountrywife.blogspot.com/

www.NightwoodForge.etsy.com

I've done it here on "the frozen tundra". In fact, earliest was 8 May. But for every tomato plant that goes into the ground early, there's something at hand to put over them in case of a late frost. Only bit me one time when I used bottomless gallon milk jugs and didn't place the cap on them. Didn't lose many plants but most had to come back from a lateral bud after the tops were frozen.

Martin

Just for fun we set a few out every March 26th which is my late Grandfather's birthday. We must cover them every night for weeks, we set heated rocks near them most evenings....it is not really worth it! The plants never catch up with the plants we set out later. Usually for us we set plants out by end of April or early May. Western NC area. Then, we do watch for chills and cover if necessary.

I always go by ground temp and don't plant till ground temp is over 55F
Due to an illness last year during my normal planting time, the ground temp was 65 when I planted and I had the best garden ever, so this year I'll be testing that, half out at 55F and half out at 65F and we'll see which does better

I plant about May 15, but keep them covered with floating row cover for about a month.

We usually plant around April 15.

I plan on putting my tomatoes out way before May 15th, usually do so by April 15th for sure. Maybe even earlier with covers. Just waiting for it to stop raining so much so my beds can dry out & be worked. I live at the very bottom of Zone 8.

One can usually get by planting there tomatoes here after April 15th or so. Some plant even earlier and cover every night. However, if you wait another month here and plant around May 15, your tomatoes won't be more than a day or two behind theirs.

I put my seeds in the ground around April 15th, and have plants showing by the end of May.

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r.h. in oklahoma

Raised a country boy, and will die a country boy.

There's 150 hybrid tomatoes and 150 hybrid sweet peppers to go into the ground at the farmlet as soon as I can fence the pigs out (i.e. next week). Thanks to Martin, there's twenty heirloom tomatoes to be planted in my backyard garden and ten over at my neighbor's garden. (Any time you want to visit, Martin, we've got a guest room for you.) We may put more into my neighbor's garden since she has her garden all ready already. The tomatoes were seeded into flats about a month ago and ready for transplanting now. We also have to go to the agricultural extension office and pick up fruit fly baits so we can trap the fruit flies or we won't see any tomatoes get ripe.

I don't suppose you four season folks want to hear about the corn, lima beans, green peppers and sweet potatoes we brought in from the garden yesterday?

Not unless your offering all of us the spare room with the "garden view" :banana02::banana02: Fruit flys - we even have those in the NE

Well, the guest room has an ocean view but the outhouse has a garden view. Not that either one would be big enough for everyone! Martin sends out seeds to folks, though. Especially the open pollinated heirloom tomatoes.

There are farmers on island who have extra accomodations for WWOOFers. Those are Willing Workers On Organic Farms and folks work for an hour or two a day in exchange for their room and there is usually one meal a day provided, but it is different for each farmer. They already have their tomatoes set out, too! You could all come out and WWOOF and set your tomatoes out before Jan. 1st.

Wow, many of you folks are sooo lucky to plant early! Here in WNY along the NY/PA border, we tried in the past to throw in some tomatoes by May 15th. It seldom works out. So after many trials and errors, we now plant on Memorial Day weekend, But even then, some years we still have chances of frost.

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Dave

"Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded" (2 Chronicles 15:7)