Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
So the most important information that you will need for
starting seeds is the date of the last frost for your geographic
region. This can be found from the Cooperative Extension
Service or from an Internet search in most cases. The
National Climatic Data Center maintains comprehensive
tables on the Internet that give the statistical likelihoods of
frost on a given date along with the probabilities of the
number of frost-free days, broken down by state and city.
Weather.com
also provides data relevant to gardening.
Once you've determined the average date of your last spring
frost, determine the date for starting seeds and transplanting
seedlings into the garden by adding or subtracting a certain
number of weeks from the date of the last frost, depending on
the crop (see
Table 15
).
If my average last spring frost is June 1st, then I would start
my tomato plants seven weeks before June 1st and set them
out on that date. Cabbage would be started 13 weeks before
June 1st and set out in the garden 5 weeks before June 1st.
Eggplant would be started 8 weeks before June 1st and set out
2 weeks after June 1st.
Table 15: Spring and Fall Planting Guide
