Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of determining when you can plant tomatos is to examine the USDA zone info for Lake Dallas.

Planting Calendar for Tomatos

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

It's a bad idea to plant tomatos until after the last frost because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant tomatos in Lake Dallas 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 fully mature. If you are starting your tomatos indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on March 15 in Lake Dallas. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Lake Dallas is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Lake Dallas there is a last frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your tomatos in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Lake Dallas

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Lake Dallas

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Lake Dallas.