"...a few spells of nights down into the 50's and wet days not getting out of the 60's."

Last year I planted out about 1/3 of my plants when it was pretty warm, then it turned cold and wet for about a month. The tomatoes I planted appeared to stall completely. I have plenty of room, so I left them and then planted out the rest of my plants when the weather turned warm again. The first planting took off and in a few weeks you couldn't tell the difference between them and the second planting. Mind you they were ALL behind where they normally should have been, but they did grow.

The most critical temperature for tomatoes to grow well is the soil temperature, and as long as you are having cool and/or cloudy days, it isn't going to warm significantly. Just be patient and you'll get there.

Betsy

It's so early in the season for your zone, I think I would have been tempted to re-planted them, too. Generally, it's advised to water well after planting so that any air pockets are eliminated. Have you fertilized? If not, it's time.

Thank you both!

I did fertilize last weekend, and I moved them down deeper and then tented them with clear plastic for a few days. They're already looking MUCH better.

I'm now playing the waiting game, checking on them every night when I get home and resisting the urge to keep watering. I was good and actually checked the forecast this weekend for rain, before I mindlessly drowned the poor things again.

I would also have been tempted to do similar in your circumstances. The big thing from this point forward is the watering regimen and watching out for disease symptoms.

2013, Zone 5, May 12th plant-out? Yikes. For future reference, people in Zones 5 or 6 should have no qualms about planting in late May, or sometimes even the 1st week of June. Let mother nature dictate when you plant, by watching extended weather forecasts (rainfall, evening temps, soggy cold soil etc). You can also divide your plantings and space them out a week or two (mid-May + late-May etc).

Here's a good local weather monitoring site to bookmark, it ought to come in handy for next year's planting season:

Here is a link that might be useful: Wunderground.com

This post was edited by sjetski on Mon, Jun 10, 13 at 12:11

Not all Zone 5's are created equal :) so I agree that long-term forecasts are more relevant than a particular date on the calendar. I'm in Zone 5 and I transplanted my tomatoes and peppers on May 13 in 2012 and May 19 in 2013. Given this year's cool spring/summer, I thought I'd need to wait until late May, but the long-term forecasts & my soil temps were agreeable and I only ended up needing to cover my plants two or three nights when it got unseasonably cold (ironically, the same number of nights as last year's early summer.)

Doris, I'm not sure where in Z5 you are, but for next year, keep an eye on the long-term forecast for your area (in addition to wunderground and weather.com, I like Accuweather, since they give a 30 day forecast) and expect to plant out when the nighttime lows are consistently in the mid-50s and there have been enough warm, sunny days to well warm your soil. As sjetski says, Memorial Day planting isn't uncommon in Z5, no matter how anxious we all are to get our plants in. :)

Kathy

and expect to plant out when the nighttime lows are consistently in the mid-50s

Kathyb.

If I were to take your advice, I would be still waiting to plant my tomatoes, here in Western Washington State. But I have planted them more than a month ago. In a couple of days the forecast is calling for lows of 48F and highs of 65F. All my indets plants are well over 2ft tall and full of blossoms and some tiny fruits. Tomatoes are pretty tough when it comes to tolerating cold nights. Mine have seen many nights of 43, 44, 45F nights and they have not budged. But cukes and eggplants got stunted and few died. Peppers did ok.

I have no doubt that's true for your area, Seysonn. Since I've never gardened in the PNW, I certainly don't know what your planting dates are. But since the OP asked for advice for her Z5 garden, I wanted to let her know what the rule of thumb is around here. She didn't say what part of Z5 she gardens in, so I made the assumption that she is in the middle part of the US -- the Plains states, the Great Lakes area, or upstate PA/NY. These regions make up the majority of Zone 5 and generally plant out tomatoes in mid-to-late May. Since we get a lot colder in the winter than your Zone 7 garden, it takes our soil longer to warm up in the spring.

Most years I plant out in my garden, using Walls of Water, anywhere from mid-March to late April. Since I plant 100 to 150 plants this may be spread over several weeks. It is generally considered SAFE here in the Salt Lake area, Zone 6, to plant without much protection by around May 5th - May 10th (though one year we did have light, plant damaging frost, in early June). I generally take off my walls of water around May 10th to the 15th.

I generally get ripe tomatoes from about early-mid June on (small amounts at first and very large amounts of tomatoes by early to mid July.) This is typically 1 to 2 months earlier, in production, than most of my neighbors get.

I gave all this information, so that you can see how I USUALLY do it. BUT, temperatures, lack of sun and increased wetness can affect things to an incredible degree.

2 years ago we had a very wet, cool Spring and early Summer. I had all my plants in the ground from early April to about May 10th. (I delayed a bit because of the weather.) But when it came to growth, it didn't matter how early or how late I planted. ALL the tomatoes shut down growth and production and were sitting there looking like small, plants (maybe a foot high) in late June with NO tomatoes. Then the weather warmed up a bit and they started to grow. It was a disaster. No significant amounts of tomatoes until LATE AUGUST. TWO MONTHS LATE. A horrible year, since we generally get killing frost by about mid October. Some of my large/late varieties ripened just in time for me to save seed, then watch them die, and I was never sure I could judge ANY of the plants by their flavor that year.

Anyway, the moral of the whole story is, know your area, use walls-of-water if you want (I'm convinced they give me a good jump), and THEN be prepared for the odd or unusual year. Time and experience will tell.

This post was edited by fcivish on Tue, Jun 11, 13 at 14:51

You have 100+ WOWs? Wow!

Perhaps the most important thing with tomato plants is sunlight, sunlight, sunlight. Temperatures from the lower 50s to upper 80s allow them to grow. Cooler temperatures at night are not generally a problem, but if the temps drop into the upper 30s, you should provide some protection (even if frost isn't predicted, you can easily get it with temps below 40 degrees). One study I saw said that tomatoes germinated best from temperatures in the lower 80s, but grew best from 65 to 75. Don't know how true this is. They don't need massive amounts of water at first, in fact more water can slow them down, but the soil shouldn't be drying out more than about a half inch down.

If you tend to have inconsistent weather, with Spring periods of nice sunny days followed by a few days of freezing or snowstorms, then that is one place where Walls of Water might excel Here is an Amazon.com page for about the best price you will see them at: http://www.amazon.com/WALL-O-WATER-3-PACK/dp/B0000DI86C/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

When planting, I generally plant them up to just below a set of good, bushy leaves. But in NO CASE do I plant deeper than about 8 inches. If the plant is longer than that, I tend to tilt it and lay it on its side, so that most of the plant is 4 to 8 inches deep. This is based on tomatoes I had in the past where I planted them up to 1 1/2 feet deep (they were large plants, okay) and later in the summer, I had occasion to dig them up. First of all, production was no better than on a smaller plant, planted only 8 inches deep. Second, all the new roots that had developed were in the first 2 to 6 inches below ground.

I don't believe they develop roots from 'fuzz' but from almost anywhere along the stem, particularly at the joints.

Lastly, it is very common once you plant ANY tomato plant for it to shut down for 2 weeks or so. This is kind of a SHOCK process as it adjusts to it's new home, but it doesn't mean that nothing is happening. It may be not just adjusting, but actually starting to send out additional roots and otherwise preparing to grow. Warmer temperatures and bright sun (with adequate but not excessive water) speed this process, while cold, wet, cloudy conditions extend this period of time. It is also true that if your plants are well hardened off and able to deal with stress, that they might move through this period better. If you have plants in Walls of Water, some people think that the WOWs may actually help the plant to go through this adjustment period earlier. Other people think that the Walls of Water DESTROY any hardening the plant has been through, and that the plants will delay, again, for a week or two, once you take the Walls of Water off. I personally am not convinced of this. As I said, I am a big believer in walls of water and have enough for over 100 plants at a time.

Once you do put the plants out into the ground (hopefully they are exposed to as much sunlight and warm air as you can get) keep the soil moist - damp, but not flooded. In the early days it is generally better to water a little bit in the mornings, every few days than large amounts all at once, and try to avoid watering at night during the cooler weather periods (watering at night chills the plants more from evaporation).

Fertilize VERY SMALL amounts perhaps once per week or every other week, rather than large amounts of fertilizer all at once. Fertilizer can stress the plants too, for sure.

Avoid excessively windy areas, if possible.

Keep weeds away from the plants.

If you do all of these things, then, when the weather turns consistently warm and sunny, your plants should take off and grow very well.

100 WoWs? "Wow" is an appropriate term, LOL. I wish I were your neighbor so I could see that. Tomato heaven! :D

Kathy