When to Plant Tomatos in Punxsutawney, PA

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

The earliest that you can plant tomatos in Punxsutawney should be estimated by looking at the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Tomatos

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant tomatos until after the last frost has passed because they require warm weather.

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 Punxsutawney 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 all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Punxsutawney. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Punxsutawney and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Punxsutawney you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your tomatos if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Punxsutawney

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Punxsutawney

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