Your Latest Frost Freeze?

[AlittleSalt]

May 2 is the latest I have seen substantial tomato plant damage due to frost. A lot of people living away from the DFW, Texas heat island lost tomato plants that year. I'm thinking it was either 2012 or 13. That was a very late frost for us - The actual temperature at our house was in the low 30s, but we live 50 miles south of DFW.

What/when was your latest frost or freeze?

[brownrexx]

We had a light frost last year on May 15. I covered my tomato plants and they were OK.

Tonight is supposed to dip to 40 degrees. I have tomatoes in the ground but not peppers yet. they are still in pots and may spend the night indoors tonight.

[carolyn137]

Average last hard frost where I am is May 15, but experience tells us that can be almost 3 weeks ahead or 3 weeks after said date.

Same situation in the Fall as to first hard frost.

IMO and experience it can vary a lot.

Carolyn

[bryanccfshr]

May 21. It's easy to get the itch to plant out when the weather is in the 70s.
Experience tells me you usually get a loss of your best seedlings that way.

[oakley]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Average last hard frost where I am is May 15, but experience tells us that can be almost 3 weeks ahead or 3 weeks after said date.

Same situation in the Fall as to first hard frost.

IMO and experience it can vary a lot.

Carolyn

My experience as well on the Mountaintop. I'm a bit south of you Carolyn, but altitude.
Garden went in '98. One of the early years last frost was June 7th. Last year it was
early April but soil was still cold.
Earliest Fall frost was August 28th around 2001-ish. Last year mid October when the
basil went down.

That is a six week swing.

I'll plant one bed early this year if the 10 day forecast looks good. The early plants are
ready. I gain nothing in growth as later plants catch up but i need to spread out the
labor as we still work full time.

[MissS]

We had 7 inches of snow on May 10th 1990. All of the trees were leafed out, so the weight of the snow pruned many trees and took others down. It was a huge mess in town of fallen trees.

[slugworth]

It is supposed to be april 15th but we have had frost in may in the past.
The usual plant in ground date is memorial day weekend.

[IronPete]

Here in PEI we don't plant out until June 10th. I need a greenhouse!!! :-/

[Worth1]

This year was the year before.
Worth

[VC Scott]

Here there is no first freeze and there is no last freeze.

Seven miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, 20 miles north of San Diego.

This would be tomato paradise were it not for the coastal fog that can wreck black tomatoes susceptible to grey mold, tomato rust mites, thrips and the occasional horn worm.

[Gardeneer]

According to the weather historical data, our LFD is April 10-15 . This is a 90/10 statistical average. Meaning there remains a 10% chance to have a hard frost after that (90% assurance that won't happen) .
But our actual hard freeze/frost this year happened on March 16, 17th. It took 7 plants away from me. I was just testing the waters.

[KarenO]

Commonly freezes up to the beginning of June in the Edmonton area but last freeze in a normal year is typically mid April on the Island
KarenO

[Father'sDaughter]

Coming up on the 40th anniversary -- https://www.boston.com/weather/weath...-worcester-bad. We had no power for about a week after this one.

I've been told by several people that "the old timers" around here never plant out tomatoes before Memorial Day. I tried to a couple of times and had to work really hard to save my plants when the switch flipped back to late winter temps for a couple of days. In the end, it didn't make any difference in my first ripe date, so why bother?

Memorial Day is now my official tomato plant out day. Peppers, eggplant, cucumbers and zucchini wait until after June 1st. I figure those "old timers" have had a lot more practice and know what they're doing.

[SteveP]

Ours used to be April 15th, but I think they changed it. I am not sure what it is now. I planted 4 Early Girls on April 10th this year taking a chance to get some early tomatoes and it looks like it may pay off. I planted the rest of my tomatoes April 25th and we had a night that got down to 36 but all plants survived without damage.

[clkeiper]

supposed to be May 15th but there have been many a got to cover them events afterwards, so we normally don't plant out until Mem. Day.