I was given 2 plants from a friend and they have been planted outside for a few days I may have to put up a bit of a wind break today but I just planted them didn't harden off Whoops!!

Lynn, I've had my tomatoes out on the deck for about 3 weeks now. I started putting them on and under a chair and covering the chair with a Dollar store plastic chair cover. They have all survived just fine. Past 2 weeks I have just placed them under the chair with no cover at night and they are happy campers so far. The past couple of days here have been cool, windy, and rainy and my tomatoes (as well as everything else) have been real troopers! I will put them in next weekend. Last year I planted all my tomatoes and cucs after June 1st and I had bumper crops. :)

Ginny

Mine have been sitting outside for about ten days through warm weather and at times high winds, they're tough buggers now! Today is the coolest it's been in weeks, though we really needed this rain! Has been a warm May in the Edmonton region and these tomatoes could have gone into the garden weeks ago, though who knew? I remember when I was a kid, one spring was so warm that my mother had planted the tomatoes along the south side of the house in late April and no frost touched them. Last spring was pretty nice with no hard frost after April 26 th ... this year, I think our last was about May 6 th, though could be mistaken by a day or so.

Terrance

I wish mine were big enough! Mine just sprouted a couple days ago....kinda amazing as the seed was close to 8 years old.

Mine have been out for well over a week. They're in the cold frame, so protected from the wind and i was able to put the cover down at night. Most of them are not too bad, though they got a little singed by the frost the other night.

I started hardening mine off in early May when the nice weather came, and planted them in the garden a week ago. The garden ones have been protected from those strong east winds by a fence along that side of the yard. The two pots of cherry tomatoes I put on the deck were exposed to the wind, so I carried them down and put them in the garden almost a week ago and will move them back up when the winds ease off. Everything looks pretty good so far.

For this year I've transferred Lois Hole's advice about seeding early if weather warrants it, to two of my tomato plants. I want 2 sunsugar in the garden, but kept 4 of my best seedlings. I planted 2 of those out, with protection in the form of a large clear garbage bag, on May 11th! That is my earliest day ever, one year I was as late as July 8th (cherokee purple - still got tomatoes before frost, they just had to ripen indoors). I'm covering with a blankie tonight with expected lows at +3, and if we should get a freeze and my sunsugars bite the dust, I'll have the two 'back-ups' to plant out in June, when I usually plant out. No frost, and hopefully I'll have some cherry tomatoes earlier and be ahead of the game.

The year I planted the tomato out July 8th, I took no time to harden off, but used clothespins to secure an old bedsheet around the tomato cage for a couple of days, to get it to adapt to the sun. I would only have done that for a couple of days, I don't recall it appearing to have suffered from that. I'd bought it from a greenhouse for a buck so couldn't resist, and I had the room for one more in the garden.

I had mine out of the direct sun out on the patio for 2 weeks, then in the sun for a week, and I will plant them out this week if there's no frost forecast.

South country guy, tomato seed can be viable for ages. I grow my grandpa's heirlooms and did a bad job of saving seed a couple of years ago which necessitated planting his seeds, labeled with the dates, from the early 1990s. The germination rate was actually pretty high!