Quote:
Originally Posted by PaulF
I tend to pay attention to average last frost date, actual soil temperature and historical last frost date. Somewhere in all those numbers is a date when tomatoes and peppers get planted. Mostly it is what the weather is like when I finally get around to feeling like it is time to plant without losing everything and then wait a few more days just to be sure.
Pretty dang scientific, huh.
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That is a system.
Soil temperature, IMO, is very important. I would wait until it gets to 57-60F. The foliage can tolerate cool weather fine but the root system needs a minimum temperature to uptake the nutrients. So with 60F soil temperature and deep planting under black plastic, the night lows are not going to bother tomatoes. For years, my tomatoes plants have been exposed down to 36F at nights , many times after plant out. Some say they would get stunted. But not so.My plant get real big in the season and bear good amounts of fruits.