When to plant your summer crops can be tricky because the weather doesn’t always abide by averages. The general rule is to wait until all danger of frost is gone. Well…that could be today, maybe. According to the National Weather service there is a 50% chance of it getting to 32 degrees as of May 1st. However, after May 22nd there is only a 10% chance that temperatures will get to freezing for Spanish Fork, Utah. You can find all of this information for Utah on my homepage links section or click this link for anywhere in the U.S.

Since the weather can do what it wants, some would suggest to wait two weeks until after the average frost free date to plant, in order to be safe. However, in Utah we have a pretty short season and therefore, there isn’t alot of time to spare so we tend to push the limits on this. If you want to push the limits, here are some things to consider. Keep in mind that by taking any advice below, you may lose seeds/plants if the weather isn’t “average”.

First, you can generally plant seeds 7-10 days before your frost free date in order to get a jump. Even if it gets really cold one night, the soil doesn’t get as cold unless it is cold for a while.

Second, consider hotcaps or Wall o waters for tomatoes. You can plant under these 3 weeks early and potentially get a jump. If you plant any sooner, they may grow to big too soon for the protection to work adequately. I will be planting my tomatoes under hotcaps this weekend.

Third, you can try from transplants. Vegetables like melons, cucumbers, squash, corn and beans really don’t respond well to transplants, but you can certainly try. Peppers, eggplants and tomatoes work well from transplants so this will give you a needed jump on the season with these.

Finally, don’t be too concerned about getting things in the ground too early. Everything should have time to grow. This post is mainly for fanatics like me that aren’t very good at being patient.

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