When to Plant Tomatoes
Start tomatoes indoors 6 to 8 weeks before your last frost, then plant them out 1 to 3 weeks after your last frost.
Tomatoes at a glance
- Start indoors
- 6 to 8 weeks before your last frost
- Plant out
- 1 to 3 weeks after your last frost
- Time to harvest
- 60 to 85 days from planting out
- Harvest lasts
- about 16 weeks
- Spacing
- 1 plant per square foot
- Frost
- Tender: frost kills it
Growing tomatoes
Tomatoes want six to eight hours of sun, warm soil and steady water. Give each plant a cage or a stake when it goes in, mulch once the soil has warmed, and water at the base to keep the leaves dry. Indeterminate kinds keep growing and fruiting until frost; determinate kinds ripen their crop over a few weeks.
Dates by hardiness zone
Typical dates for each zone; your ZIP code gives your own.
| Zone | Start indoors | Plant out | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zone 3a | Apr 2–16 | Jun 4–18 | Aug 3 – Sep 14 |
| Zone 3b | Mar 22 – Apr 5 | May 24 – Jun 7 | Jul 23 – Sep 25 |
| Zone 4a | Mar 17–31 | May 19 – Jun 2 | Jul 18 – Sep 28 |
| Zone 4b | Mar 13–27 | May 15–29 | Jul 14 – Oct 1 |
| Zone 5a | Mar 8–22 | May 10–24 | Jul 9 – Oct 5 |
| Zone 5b | Mar 6–20 | May 8–22 | Jul 7 – Oct 10 |
| Zone 6a | Mar 4–18 | May 6–20 | Jul 5 – Oct 16 |
| Zone 6b | Feb 26 – Mar 12 | Apr 30 – May 14 | Jun 29 – Oct 19 |
| Zone 7a | Feb 19 – Mar 5 | Apr 23 – May 7 | Jun 22 – Oct 12 |
| Zone 7b | Feb 8–22 | Apr 12–26 | Jun 11 – Oct 1 |
| Zone 8a | Feb 1–15 | Apr 5–19 | Jun 4 – Sep 24 |
| Zone 8b | Jan 20 – Feb 3 | Mar 24 – Apr 7 | May 23 – Sep 12 |
| Zone 9a | Jan 5–19 | Mar 9–23 | May 8 – Aug 28 |
| Zone 9b | Dec 14–28Nights are still cool before mid-February, so this starts a little later. | Feb 15 – Mar 1 | Apr 16 – Aug 6 |
| Zone 10a | Dec 14–28 | Feb 15 – Mar 1 | Apr 16 – Aug 6 |
| Zones 10b–11b | Frost is rare here, so tomatoes can go in from late winter, and again in late summer for a fall crop. | ||
Questions about tomatoes
Why do tomato flowers fall off?
Usually the weather. Flowers drop when late-spring nights are chilly or when summer days turn very hot. Once the weather settles the plants set fruit again, and steady watering helps.
When is a tomato ready to pick?
When it has full color and gives a little to a gentle squeeze. Tomatoes picked at the first blush also ripen well on the kitchen counter, which is handy at the end of the season.
