Several years ago I performed a test. I planted one of my home grown Big Beef seedlings out in mid April. I surrounded it with a tomato cage wrapped in plastic and I put gallon jugs of water inside the cage to radiate some warmth at night.
Then in mid May I planted another Big Beef seedling that had stayed in the house beside the first one so the soil and temperatures were virtually identical.
It is so funny but each plant produced their first ripe tomato on the exact same day!
Even though it is tempting when we get warm days in April, I no longer try to plant early. It ALWAYS gets cold again after the warm days in early April.
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