One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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 Richland Center can be looked at to determine when it's a good idea to plant tomatos.

Planting Calendar for Tomatos

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

It's a bad idea to plant tomatos until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant tomatos in Richland Center 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. If you wait any later than that and your tomatos may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your tomatos indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on May 15 in Richland Center. You can expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Richland Center is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Richland Center last frost occurs after May 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your tomatos in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Richland Center

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

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

Plants to Grow in Richland Center

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Richland Center.