Chapter 02 · When to plant, when to pick
Climate and Zones
Match the crop to your frost dates. Tomatoes do not forgive a cold soil or a surprise September freeze.
Zone 6: transplant Mid- to late April. Harvest June – October.
Tomatoes are a warm-season crop. You start seed indoors six to eight weeks before the average last spring frost, set plants out after that frost when the soil has warmed, and you pick until the first fall frost — or until heat shuts the flowers down, in the South and the desert.
Choose your USDA zone below. The calendar, planting window, and harvest notes throughout the book follow it. Dates are averages; a late nor’easter or a warm March will move them.
Zone 6Winter min −10 to 0°F
~165–190 days
St. Louis, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Portland, Oregon
- Last spring frost
- April 1 – 15
- First fall frost
- Mid- to late October
- Start seeds indoors
- Mid-February – early March
- Transplant outdoors
- Mid- to late April
- Harvest
- June – October
- Varieties that finish
- Full range: Sungold, Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, San Marzano, Roma, and a patio type for pots. Include one early and one late.
The sweet spot. You can grow almost anything if you keep water even and prune for air. Nightshade rotation still matters.
Season at a glance
Zone 6 tomato year
First ripe fruit in late June for cherries; slicers through October. Pull plants after the first light frost.
- Frost risk
- Start indoors
- Transplant
- In the ground
- Harvest
- Heat pause
How to read the windows
Start indoors means sowing into trays under lights or in a bright, warm window. Transplant means the plants leave the house — soil 60°F, nights reliably above 50°F, forecast clear of frost. Harvest is ripe fruit on the plant, not the day you set it out. Count “days to maturity” on a seed packet from transplant, not from sowing.
Cold climates, zones 3–5
Short seasons reward early varieties, black plastic to warm soil, and a cover for the first two weeks outside. Determinate plants finish a crop before September. If you love heirlooms, grow one, and grow an early cherry beside it so you eat tomatoes either way.
The middle of the country, zones 6–7
This is tomato country. You can ripen Brandywine and still have a sauce crop. The work is even water, pruning for airflow, and a blight-aware rotation. Do not plant tomatoes where potatoes, peppers, or eggplants grew last year.
Heat, zones 8–11
Frost is a rumor. The enemy is a run of 95°F days with 78°F nights, which aborts pollen. Plant a spring crop early, accept a midsummer lull, and set a second crop in late summer for fall. Heat-set varieties exist for this reason. Shade cloth from 11 to 4 in July is not cheating.