Nem, too right about soil temperature, especially tomatoes.
It was FusionPower who first pointed out the importance of three warm days at transplant time, and avoid the stress of cold soil. AKMark has other tricks, including warm watering. A tomato in cold soil will have purple stems and leaves. bjbebs plants don't show those signs of cold stress at all, so I think the warmth is working.
It's a funny coincidence that we're about the same latitude as Paris, and their shortest day is actually a few minutes short of ours.
So the daylength issues are the same although other factors make it colder for us.
I need a pony!
