When to Plant Tomatos in Albany, CA

One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By reviewing the USDA zone info for Albany you should be able to determine when it's possible to plant tomatos.


Planting Calendar for Tomatos

Frost tolerance for tomatos: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Since tomatos are not cold tolerant you need to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant tomatos
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant tomatos
Probably not a good time to plant tomatos

The earliest that you can plant tomatos in Albany is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant tomatos and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your tomatos may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your tomatos indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on January 31 in Albany. You can expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Albany is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Albany you get surprised by a frost after January 31 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your tomatos in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Albany

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)December 15
Lowest Expected Low30°F
Highest Expected Low35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Albany

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Albany.