One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant tomatos is to consult the USDA zone info for Donaldsonville.

Planting Calendar for Tomatos

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

Since tomatos do not do well in cold weather you have to wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant tomatos in Donaldsonville is March. However, you really should wait until April 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 couple of weeks earlier by starting your tomatos indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Donaldsonville. You should expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Donaldsonville is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Donaldsonville last frost occurs after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your tomatos in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Donaldsonville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Donaldsonville

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