The Bottom Line:
Your frost date tells you when you can begin transplanting into your garden. Look up your Frost date at Victory Seeds.
The Rest of the Story:
Spring has sprung in my neck of the woods, and it is getting closer and closer to planting time! We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our frost date (May 15) so we can begin transplanting all of our starts into the garden.
- What is a frost date? The frost date is the date in your area after which you can reasonably expect no more killing frosts at night. Actually there are two frost dates for your area – the date of the last frost in Spring and the date of the first frost in Fall. For this article we will focus on the Spring date.
- Why is my frost date important to know? Simply put, just about all of the timing of things in a vegetable garden such as planting, starting seeds, etc. revolves around your frost date. Yes, it is literally THAT important!
- OK, but WHY? Well, young Grasshopper, many if not most of the traditional vegetables we think of when we think of vegetable gardening are heat-tolerant plants. Tomato, eggplant, pepper, squash, cucumber, melon, corn, etc. These varieties thrive in the heat of summer, but will die when it gets too cold. Planting these varieties after the chance of a killing frost minimizes losses and ensures a healthy and happy garden!
- When is my Frost Date? You can look it up at Victory Seeds. If you are a bit more adventurous take a look at the NOAA Climate Normals (not for faint of heart!). If all else fails Google “frost date.”
- How accurate is my frost date? Great question! As with any sort of forecast, the frost dates can be very accurate, or not so much. We feel they are 80% or more accurate for our area. The frost date is an estimate, not an absolute.
- So how do I know exactly when to begin planting? We use our frost date as a guide. When our frost date approaches we watch the weather forecasts like a hawk. If there is a chance of frost on or after the date we simply wait to begin planting. If the forecast is for normal or high temperatures we go ahead and plant on or near the frost date.
- HELP! We followed your directions and waited until the frost date to plant and now we are expecting a killing frost tonight! Will we lose everything? OK, calm down a bit. Things like this can happen – they are part of gardening and are not the end of the world. There are a couple ways you can deal with this:
- You can do nothing and hope the forecast is wrong. Even if it is correct, there are varying degrees of frost and there is a good chance that many or all of your plants will survive with minor or no damage.
- You can cover the plants. Use old sheets, tarps, whatever you have on hand. You don’t need blankets or anything – even thin fabric will capture and hold the warm air and keep the temperatures higher underneath. Make sure the weight doesn’t crush the plants – use sticks or anything you can think of to hold the cover off the plants.
- So what is frost anyways? Frost forms when a surface cools to a temperature that is less than the dewpoint of the adjacent air. Learn more about frost.
