Nice chart! I got it from you a month ago and use it as a guide. I personally would start peppers a little earlier thou. Just cause I'm having trouble germinating some. Works best with legal letter paper.

Hmmm ... the chart I see is a list of companion plants, not one about seed starting.

Ooops, bet I posted the link to the starting chart in companion gardening. hee hee

Here is a link that might be useful: Vegetable Seed Starting Chart - Excel

Great tool! I haven't thoroughly checked it for my area, but from what I see, this thing rocks!

Well done! Thank you for posting it. That was very generous. :)

Erin

Make sure you get your frost zone from the Farmers Almanac.
In my area I have seen dates all over the place.
http://www.almanac.com/content/frost-chart-united-states#chart

Thanks for the post and the chart. It will really help me out.

Question about the frost chart ... I was looking at the dates given on the Farmer's Almanac website and my city was not listed. So, at the bottom it says "for more locations click here" which opens the NOAA website. For each location, NOAA gives 9 dates. Which one am I supposed to use ??? And why ?

Angela, Try the zone finder in the Tools & Directories of the upper tool bar. It also provides your last and first frost dates. You can validate it from other sources or a local nursery.

Here is a link that might be useful: Zone Finder (U.S.)

Angela, there are a variety of ways you can use that data. Going across, the NOAA site gives you the dates when there is a 90%, 50% and 10% of dipping below a set temperature. Going down, it shows the probability of going below 36, 32, and 28 degrees. So the middle number, 50%/32 degrees would basically be your *average* frost-free date. There is still a 50% chance of frost after that date, but you may be willing to put plants out and take a risk on either needing to protect them, or losing them. If you want to be very safe, you might use the upper right date, when there is only a 10% chance of dipping below 36 degrees. Of course, every year is different, and it's best to watch the extended forecast as you get near your frost-free date. Hope that helps/makes sense.

I saw you first link was companion planiting, I ....just fortunatley have followed everything pretty close with out even realizing it. This year I was going to plant some peas and beans not to far from my onions and leeks, I wonder how close is to close. I thought I had every thing planed out already. I might have to go back to the drawing board.

Joe, Based on the rooting habits I would suggest at least 6-8 feet between the planting of peas or beans and onion family.

The lateral roots of peas and onions approach nearly 3 feet.

For those unfamiliar with Excel:

To enter your 'last frost date' you double-clik on the cell (D-57) which put the cursor into the cell. The date is entered numerically as day/month/year, i.e. - 16/05/2010. Hit 'enter' and the calculations are done.

Enjoy, Dan

Thanks, Dan. Yours is much better than mine. Going to work on it right now for my zone.

Hi Dan:

I could not enter my frost date in cell D-57. I believe with Google Documents you need to set the permissions up so that others can enter information. Otherwise it's "read only".
-(Mark)PlanterTomato.com

Download as a spreadsheet and it should function.

Has anyone else had a problem with entering the date?

Thank you for posting the chart! It's awesome! After I opened the spreadsheet, then clicked on "file", clicked "download"... clicked "Excel" and was then able to put in my date. That's what worked for me. Thank you again.

Hi again, Dan.

I've had a chance to check it out more closely. I was able to enter my last frost date, no problem. It updated the cells as anticipated.

However, The dates are a bit off. Is there a way I can adjust? The planting dates are a bit late for my area. By looking at the formulas, I'm thinking I can do it with a little tweak here and there... just not sure what to tweak.

Also, I was wondering what columns K and L are for- high range and low range.

Thanks again for a fabulous tool!

Erin

In preparing the chart I researched many sources to arrive at the best information. The primary factor is the 'weeks from Start to Transplant' which translates to the size of transplant. The size has bearing on the reduction of transplant shock (including required hardening off) and ease of handling for the actual transplanting. The next consideration is the actual transplant date related to estimated last frost date. The rest is just the mathematics.

The early start (H) and late start (I) dates are determined from the weeks from start to transplant.

If your experience suggests earlier dates (calculated) than the chart, consider that you may have a special micro-climate within the zone. The chart is merely a guide based on reported averages. Any tinkering with the formulae will influence the entire chart as based on columns not rows. Your best amending method would be to edit the specific cell after entering the last frost date.

Good luck.