I subscribe to that theory as well for tomato growing but I think the soil temps will not germinate the seed if you direct sow. I start seedlings indoors, under lights and on heat mats Jan 1 for planting out Valentine's Day, more or less.

Some varieties I've had success with for cool weather growing are: Stupice, Sub-Arctic Plenty, Oregon Spring Bush, Kimberly.....there's others, I'll post again if I think of them.

This year for hot weather growing I'm going to try Hawaiian Tropic tomatoes. Google that name for some info, especially from tomato grower Leslie Doyle in Las Vegas. Good luck, let us know what you decide to plant and how it goes.

IF you get them going well indoors AND IF you manage to avoid a late frost, yes. A row cover and some sore of warming in case of a hard freeze will be needed.

But using short-season tomatoes reportedly works for an early crop, and then the longer season ones (there are some heat-tolerant Roma varieties) and small-fruited ones can go into summer ... replant short-season ones in late summer for fall and early winter tomatoes.

http://www.plantmaps.com/interactive-arizona-last-frost-date-map.php

Do what lazygardens said.

The problem I see with early toms is no matter when you plant, if you can avoid a frost, you will still be cut off when the heat kicks in and it kicks in mighty early. For slicers, you might consider determinates because that one flush may be all you get anyhow.

I sprouted my first batch of seeds three weeks ago and my second one today. Seed is cheap, and "rarely freezes" is not something I am willing to bet the whole year on.

Strong suggestion: avoid Park's Season Starter. It can grow and fruit well, but in trying to ripen it can't handle cooling. Also it has neither sugar nor acid, thus no taste.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions.

I have done well with tomatoes here thus far. I pull about 50 pounds out of the garden in Spring and around half of that in the fall (ok, really early winter, and most I need to ripen on my window sill).

I was kind of hoping for some sort of small "winter season" using far-north, Super-early tomatoes. Might be something I test out next season....maybe start them indoors in Early November, plant out mid to late December, and try to protect from any wacky frosts that may happen. I have been to Edmonton in the Summer....it is cold still...hoping they would be well suited for the cooler, but not frozen temperatures of our low desert winters.

ermc - I started mine this year around July 4th and planted them out in mid-Sept. Stupice are just now coming in nicely, Thessaloniki has been producing for a few weeks now. Surprisingly, Silvery Fir Tree has been putting out plenty of fruit.

Glacier and Siberian Red are a couple others that I have grown and that did well for me.

Here's the tomato bed, taken a couple of days ago:

I covered the bed with frost cloth just after I took that pic.