One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

A way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant tomatos is to check out the USDA zone info for Southfield.

Planting Calendar for Tomatos

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

You should not plant tomatos until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant tomatos in Southfield is April. However, you really should wait until May 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your tomatos may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your tomatos indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Southfield. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Southfield is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Southfield you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your tomatos if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Southfield

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Southfield

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