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UC IPM Home > Homes, Gardens, Landscapes, and Turf > Vegetables > Cultural Tips
How to Manage Pests
Pests in Gardens and Landscapes
Time to plant
Tomatoes are warm-weather plants. They like sunshine
and produce best when planted in a well-exposed area
in the garden. If you plant earlier, provide frost protection
such as plastic jugs or covers that go over small plants.
However, you can help prevent seedlings from damping
off and diseases such as early blight by planting when
the weather is warmer.
Trapping the heat from the sun during the day and slowing
the re-radiation of that heat at night by using row
cover helps protect tomato plants from varying temperatures
during the springtime.
Tomatoes are suitable for a small garden if compact
varieties are grown. Transplants, shoots, or roots are
used for field planting.
Tips |
Temperature (F) |
Comments |
100° |
Flowers will not set |
80°–90° |
Optimum growth |
70°–80° |
Optimum germination |
50°–55° |
Minimum night temperature for fruit set |
45° |
Will grow slowly |
32° |
Potential injury by frost |
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Planting
Dates for Tomatoes* |
| CALIFORNIA |
Transplant or direct
seed |
Start transplants
indoors |
North and North
Coast
Monterey County north |
May |
March–April |
South Coast
San Luis Obispo County south |
April–
mid-July |
March–mid-June |
Interior Valleys Sacramento,
San
Joaquin valleys |
March–May |
mid-Jan.–mid-February |
Desert Valleys
Imperial and
Coachella valleys |
Dec.–March |
Nov.–Feb. |
*Areas are large, so planting dates are only approximate,
as the climate may vary even in small sections of the state.
Contact experienced gardeners in your community and experiment
on your own to find more precise dates. |
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