April is kind of iffy here, and early May can be also. But I bought tomato plants recently for the garden. Keeping them in starter pots is not so good, nor indoors too much. I was looking at the 10 day weather forecast, which is not necessarily accurate. We have rains moving in tonight, but I was thinking of planting my tomatoes tomorrow or one day this week. Most of them will go into the ground, but I want to use my big blue 50 gallon barrel for a couple of them this year and see how they do. Tomatoes seem to need lots of room for their roots. It is full of well rotted compost, so they ought to do well. It has plenty of drainage holes, so that will be good. In theory at least, we could get a couple more frosts in this area... Our average last frost date is April 15th.. Is it safe to put them out just yet?
I planted 9 tomatoes outside. We are supposed to wait till mid May. I will put a tunnel over them if the weather looks too bad. I have planted 24 in place, but these I protected with a tunnel. Looking at the long range forecasts, May looks to be colder than April. It is always risky to plant tomatoes out too soon.
I don't have any way to do tunnels at present, or I would. Maybe I could just put them in bigger pots temporarily? Not sure if that would help or hinder?
I have had tomato plants out for a few weeks ! We are warmer than you but some frosts do not hurt tomatoes ! We have had a few frosts but tomatoes are fine. Didn`t even burn the leaves ! You can always cover them with dead grass, leaves or hay. They will come back after a frost even if the leaves are burned. Just nip them off and they will make more.
Thanks Mart. I did put them in a larger bucket for right now until next week. Then they will go into the ground. There is cold (not sure if frost or not) predicted over the weekend.
Well, I would watch the forecast. Tomatoes are tropical and don't like it cold. cold temps will damage flower blossoms that are just cells beginning to develop and you will see it as cat faced, zippers and malformed toms. that happens below 50° typically. We see the nights are still in the 30's here. I am so tired of it. it is almost May and the trees aren't even leafed out yet. Once the nights are above 50 is when I like to plant outside. I don't want to babysit them every night. once in a while doesn't bother me but every night gets old fast.
I have my bucket of tomatoes on the front porch, and can grab them quickly if needed. It is in the 50s here, and drippy. I worked outdoors weeding and getting beds ready to plant. I am just trying to decide where to put things.
