Know your Frost Dates

In a previous post, I mentioned taking full advantage of your growing season by knowing your latest spring frost and the first fall frost. After more research, I have realized that the link I provided to gather this information is not very complete. I have since found a better reference.

Go to this site to get more complete information of frost dates for your area. This site provides data for three different temperatures-- 36, 32, and 28 --and three different probability levels. I would avoid the 90% column, as most seedlings can't handle frost. Cold hardy plants can be put out in the 50% probability date, and everything else should wait until the 10% date. There is still a 10% probability of a frost, so you should always be prepared to protect your new plants should a cold snap hit.

The above site will also list your freeze free period, in days. It's important to understand this number because it defines your growing season. The length of your growing season determines what you have time to grow or how many harvests you can squeeze in. For my area, my freeze free period is 134 days, at 50% probability. What this means is it will be very difficult to grow plants that have long times to maturity, like cabbage and broccoli. Time to maturity information is provided on most seed packets, but you can also go here for days to maturity on most common vegetables.

In order for me to grow tomatoes and peppers, I need to start seeds indoors so that as soon as the danger of frost is (mostly) over, I already have seedlings ready to be planted.

For those of you planning to start seeds indoors, NOW IS THE TIME for most areas. This will be my weekend project; I can't put it off any longer. Now get planting!!