When to Put Out Tomatoes

Early Spring

• Putting out tomatoes in early spring as soon as soil is unfrozen or dry enough to be worked, means intentionally planting tender young plants when freezing cold is likely. Apply black plastic mulch to the soil to help warm the soil before planting. You’ll also need to provide frost protection, such as floating row covers or “water wrap” devices such as Wall of Water that provide frost protection down into the teens. Another strategy is to grow tomatoes beneath arched sections of concrete reinforcing mesh covered with heavy plastic, an inexpensive and portable greenhouse. Add aluminum space blankets on extremely cold nights, reflective side down.

After the Last Frost

• Most gardeners put out their tomatoes when the soil is fully warm and the danger of frost is past. Work several inches of well-rotted manure into the top 8 to 10 inches of soil for planting, because tomatoes are heavy feeders. If you are growing any determinate tomato varieties, which produce their fruit within a limited time span, as opposed to indeterminate types, which produce tomatoes until frost, you might want to plant them successively, or set plants out at two-week intervals. This practice guarantees successive but well-timed crops throughout the season, which is helpful if you’re growing tomatoes for canning.

Early Summer

• If you put out tomatoes in summer -- from early to midsummer, depending on how long the tomato season lasts in your area -- you can grow top-quality fall tomatoes and count on vigorous plants and good production up until frost. This will give you plenty of large tomatoes at the end of the season. But for maximum yields, set out your tomatoes at least 100 days before the earliest expected killing freezes. Rather than provide frost protection at the end of the tomato season, plan to bring in your unripe tomatoes before the first frost. A simple approach is to pull up entire plants and hang them upside down in a protected indoor area such as a garage so tomatoes can continue to ripen on the vine.

Putting Out Tomatoes

• Put out stocky, sturdy transplants. Plant them to a depth that just a few sets of true leaves are above ground. For large transplants, or leggy ones, consider planting them deep, or even horizontally. Roots will develop all along buried stems, which helps plants take in more nutrients and water and grow more vigorously. This will help them produce more and healthier top growth quickly. Water the entire root area thoroughly with a dilute solution of fish emulsion fertilizer. Stake or cage plants as soon as the tops grow sufficiently.