Between A Pot And A Cold Place: When to transplant tomatoes outdoors
May 11th, 2007 by Erroll
I’m making tomato wine this year, and for me that starts with growing tomatoes from seed. I transplant them into the garden when it gets warm enough, meaning overnight lows of 50 Fahrenheit or higher. The latest forecast is for lows in the mid 40’s for the next 10 days, though, so I should delay transplanting them because it’s still too cold.
The photo above shows my Gold Nugget tomatoes on 5/10/07, and as you can see they are getting crowded in their pots. They need to go somewhere else soon, either the garden or other pots. No matter how carefully it’s done, digging up the plant and relocating it delivers a shock that temporarily stunts the plant’s growth. Repotting them would mean delivering this shock twice in a short time, once when I move them to new pots and again when I move them to the garden. So I should transplant into the garden right away to avoid this.
I’m not sure how I’ll resolve this dilemma yet.
[...] been looking at the 10-day forecast for clues on when to transplant my tomatoes. I wrote about the balancing act between trying to get them in the ground as soon as possible, so they can start spreading their [...]
[...] had planned on transplanting them on the 22nd, but more recent forecasts tell of cold nights ahead. I want nice [...]