Long-season warm crops are started indoors several weeks before the last frost and set out after it
Long-season warm crops are started indoors several weeks before the last frost and set out after it. Tomato and tomatillo go about six weeks ahead, pepper and eggplant about eight, basil six.
Promising A person has checked it against its sources. If you skip this, it still grows, just less well. The planner suggests it.
How it works
A frost-tender crop with a long days-to-maturity cannot mature if it is only direct-sown after the last frost, because the frost-free window is too short. A head start under cover buys the weeks the season lacks; the seedling is set out only once frost has passed, so the transplant date is still frost-gated.
The evidence
Evidence: checked against 3 sources in the research-based literature.
The 3 sources
We summarise this source in our notes rather than quote a line from it.
Early-to-mid-March Vegetables & herbs: artichoke, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, kale, lettuce, oregano
Plants it applies to · 8
Fruiting vegetables · 6, Salad & greens · 1, Herbs · 1
Salad & greens · 1
Herbs · 1
Read next
- Starting seeds indoorsWhich crops need a head start, how many weeks before your last frost to sow them, and the list of what you should sow straight in the ground instead.
- Plant your first bed, step by stepA first-season walkthrough. Pick a few forgiving crops, count from your frost dates, start what needs a head start, harden it off, and get it in the ground at the right time.
How this rule has changed
Every change is dated, newest first. The full record, with each reason, is in the data download.
- Details updated
- Sources updated
- Details updated
- Details updated
- Wording made clearer
- A person read the sources and confirmed it
- Added to the rules
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Cite this page
Milpa Gardens. “Long-season warm crops are started indoors several weeks before the last frost and set out after it. Tomato and tomatillo go about six weeks ahead, pepper and eggplant about eight, basil six.” Evidence grade: Promising. https://milpa.garden/rules/long-season-warm-crops-started-indoors-several/
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How we grade evidence
- Well established
- The rule names its mechanism and is settled, by sources a person has read and checked or by plain arithmetic and geometry.
- Promising
- The mechanism is named and the literature backs it. A few questions are still open.
- A good hunch
- Plausible by its mechanism, but field studies are thin, so treat it as a lean.
- Contested
- The evidence points both ways, or no study has tested it, so the planner does not enforce it.
- Refuted
- The claim did not survive its sources. It is kept so the folklore can be answered.