If i plant tomatoe seeds outside in a fertile garden bed after the frost will they produce tomatoes before the fall frost.

Yes. And you may have tomatoes Mid-late July or Early August if planted now. In my opinion, its best to plant seeds indoors where conditions can be more controlled. I started my seeds on Feb 14, and have blooms on my tomato plants now.

it all depends how long between last and first frost ?

WI55 are a short season 55days to maturity tomato I would put them about 55 days from a 6 inch transplant to having tomatoes ready to eat

when does your soil temp get over 70 degrees


I live at the edge of zone 4 and i have plants ready to go in the ground but need to wait a few more days , we may still have a frost this week.

May 10 +55 days I am looking at July 4th before I can even think about having a tomato in hand to eat

there are parts of Wisconsin where you could get a frost on June 1 and late August

WV you should be able too fine although you may want to start them in some starter mix or well composted compost so that they are not immediately competing with weeds

many of the old timers would make a big tray broadcast the seeds around it then let them get to about 4 inches tall and separate the plants they would pull out a dozen plants wrap them in news paper , get it wet and sell them to you like that , you would go home and plant the same day.

I used to plant wild cherry tomatoes in the Ecuadorian amazon by gathering up a few quarts and dropping a tomato and stepping on it. Seeds squirted out several feet take another step stomp another tomato. Come back in 2 months and there would be a tomato thicket as far as you could see. Used to do that in the slash and burn.

But in Oregon if you plant by seed with our cooler nights you likely will have to settle for green tomatoes by frost.

Two main factors plus some complicating ones.

Length of growing season. Not everyone is blessed to have 140+ day growing seasons like the southern states. Most tomatoes varieties are 70+ days from seed to fruit under ideal conditions.

Soil temps which is somewhat related to the first. Tomatoes as a subtropical species needs warm soils to germinate, 70+. Less than that the seed will lay there and rot. This is one of many reasons tomatoes are usually started early indoors and set out as transplants. Transplants being more hardy than seed.

Also tomatoes are vulnerable to a host of pathogens in the seed and first leaf stage, most commonly called damping off. Also the first leaf stage is not particularly hardy to adverse weather. Again why they are best sprouted under controlled conditions

But most certainly if conditions are right tomatoes can be direct seeded into the garden bed. As a matter of fact you can purchased pelleted seed that has added binder to make pellets that feed through seeding equipment for direct sowing.

Mine do from compost and I might be a zone North of him.
They fruit later than started plants and go right into the sauce.

Put a Wall o Water around the seeds in the ground to keep the soil warm and the plant protected from late frosts.

I live in north central WV. I started from seed 3 weeks ago. Plants are about 4” tall. I do not plant anything not frost friendly until after May 15th and most likely will be the weekend after that. My experience is we don’t gain much by planting right before Memorial Day due to low ground temps and the risk of a late frost.

A few years ago I planted 12 tomato plants on May 15th and planted the rest Memorial Day weekend. There was not a noticeable difference in growth/maturity time between the two plantings.

I live an hour away from my garden so I cannot be there to cover plants if there is a threat of frost so I err on the side of caution.

To answer your original question, yes you could plant from seed and have plenty of fruit before frost.

What I did this year was get 50 pack of chinese-brand solo cups at Walmart. That will plant 25 plants. Poke 1/4" (or whatever. some big hole) hole in one cup, place in the other. This video helped me. I don't have a grow light, but I did have someone put them outside for me almost every day. Works well so far. After they got like 1-2" tall I started watering with "compost tea" made from worm castings.

Cup video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6rBvaVLZCI

Compost tea video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6IHn5p7_dQ

Also: I plan on using the MIGardner (second video guy) Single-Stem method this year, and every 2-weeks hitting them with baking soda/oil solution. Check out MIGardner on youtube. Search for "MIGardner Tomatoes."

You have enough time. I used to transplant volunteer plants that came up in the garden from the previous season and always got tomatoes. That was in central NYS, way farther north than you.

Same here....volunteers by the hundreds come up every year. I move some, they somehow catch up to the plants I put in at the end of May.

I think you will do just fine, I know you have more growing days then Wy. I always start a few in February in doors and keep getting them in bigger pots. Right now today I have several that are two foot tall and have green tomato's and lots of blossoms. I also have others that I started in the first of April they are 10 inches high covered with blossoms. The rest I started mid April and they are about 2 to 3 inches high and getting lots of leaves. I use several varieties, early girl, Siberian and Patio Princess. None of these are big tomatoes the biggest are the size of a tennis ball and mature in 70 to 75 days. I start them on a seed mat indoors which keeps soil at 74 F temp. Before they get to spindly or leggy, I move them to a green house which keeps the temp warm. At night so I put a small dairy barn heater in the greenhouse to keep them warm. We just had I think are last frost but will keep an eye on them, if need be I will start the heater. I never put them in the ground until the 2nd week of June because the soil is still to cool to let them grow. The few plants I started in Feb will be producing tomatoes in June and continue to do so until they burn out and quit producing blossoms. I keep those in full sun and they are my babies. I give away and sell a few starts which pays for my time and some seeds but I love tomatoes in June in Wyoming! Not like the junk you buy in the store lots better and no chemicals. One last thing if you keep them indoors to long watch out for white fly's. one day a few 2 days you cant open your mouth.

Most all plants/vegetables have an estimate "days to maturity" and the folks who sell the seed include that on the seed packet,,,,,, BUT,,,, its not calendar days, its growing degree days which is vastly different. So if you are wanting info on growing and harvesting tomato fruit (yes its a fruit) punch the keyboard and get some background on the hours of temperature above the threshold of a minimum degree day needed for your variety of tomato. Then you will have a better idea on your chances of success................................ the mike