When to Plant Tomatos in Iron Mountain, MI

One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

The USDA zone info for Iron Mountain should be used to determine when it's the best time to plant tomatos.


Planting Calendar for Tomatos

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

Tomatos require warm weather which tells us that you must wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed 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 Iron Mountain is May. However, you really should wait until June if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant tomatos and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your tomatos may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your tomatos indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Iron Mountain. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -30°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Iron Mountain may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Iron Mountain it frosts late in the year after May 15 be ready to cover your tomatos if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Iron Mountain

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)September 15
Lowest Expected Low-30°F
Highest Expected Low-25°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 -25°F.

Plants to Grow in Iron Mountain

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Iron Mountain.