SHould the tomato plant go outside now?

Well, the weather has turned warm here in Berkeley. Should I go ahead and put my tomato starts outside? They're getting awfully tall waiting in the windowsill for their debut.

, I saw this was your first post!!! I'm not in your area, but mine are going out this weekend and I'm in NE TX. Hopefully someone in your area will pipe in, but I'm guessing if I can, you can too. Just keep an eye on the weather for a late cold snap, cover them if needed, and tell them daily how wonderful they look.

Thanks so much! Love your tractor pic! Okay, I will go ahead and plant them on Saturday. I suppose I'll harden them off today and tomorrow. Do you think a hefty bag pull over the cage is protection enough if we get a chill?

Thanks, that is my Father In Law's tractor, it works, and it's older than he is, it's an original Farm All.

That should do it, just watch the weather, I go back and forth between farmersalmac.com and weather.com for my long term forcasts. If you go to weather. com (The Weather Channels site) go over to outdoors on the right, when you are hovering over it, go down and click on lawn and garden, it will ask for your zip, type it in, make sure the Gardeners local forcast circle is clicked and hit go. One of the best tips I got from Mel's new book! They also give you the pollen count at the top of the page, as well as watering need towards the bottom.

Wow! The weather.com site is great. Even the winds are reported. Great tip-- outside I go!

I'm up in Woodland and still have my tomatoes in their recycled yogurt cups. I'm still working on getting my boxes ready, but have been holding back b/c of the > 50F evening temp thing. It's starting to consistently be in the high 40's/50F, but not quite > 50F yet. At least next year, I'll know to start the seeds in late March instead of early March.

Oh, just re-read your post. I got them outside today in their yogurt cups. Almost killed them all b/c they were all wilted when I got home! But quickly got water into all of them and they all perked back up. I decided to leave them outside tonight, but up close near the house under the covered patio to hopefully keep them warm. But still hoping to get them into the SFG within a week or so.

I love Woodland! I lived in Davis for many years-- great climate for tomatoes. So, I've got four plants outside now to varying degrees of success. THe NEw Girl is growing well but has some dark spots on a few leaves maybe from the cold. The Red Grape is in a container and seems pretty content. The Pink Lady is about 1 1/2 feet tall with some flower clusters. The Brandywine is a bit sad and wilty but I fertilized with fish emulsion and it seems a bit better. I've gor six starts in the house for back up. Or maybe I'll build another box...