Guides · Planting
When to Plant
When to plant each crop, counted from your own frost dates instead of a national calendar.
Timing matters a lot, and the right date depends on where you are. These guides count from your own frost dates. Get yours first with the frost date lookup.
When to Plant Carrots: Two Temperatures, Not One
You can sow carrots at 40°F. They germinate best at 55 to 65°F and take two to three weeks to show. The gap between those numbers is where most carrot rows are lost.
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When to Plant Garlic: Zone-by-Zone Fall Planting Windows
When to plant garlic by zone: about 1–2 weeks after your first killing frost. Late September into October in zones 3–6, into November in 7–8, and later in the South.
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Which Fruit Grows in a Container: Ask Pollination Before Pot Size
Growing fruit in containers: 7 of our 26 fruit crops won’t set fruit alone, whatever the pot. Settle pollination before pot size, and before you buy.
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How to Grow Potatoes in a Bucket: One Plant Per Bucket, and Why
How to grow potatoes in a bucket: one plant per five gallons of soil, per New Hampshire Extension. Plus depth, hilling, and when to tip the bucket out.
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How Long to Harden Off Seedlings: What Six Extension Services Actually Say
How long to harden off seedlings: extension services say seven to fourteen days. What each says, why temperature beats the count, and two exceptions.
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How to Grow Tomatoes in Pots: The Size Everyone Quotes Is for a Different Plant
How to grow tomatoes in pots: five gallons suits a compact tomato, but seven in ten varieties aren’t compact. Pot sizes, and 33 varieties that fit.
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How to Start Seeds Indoors: The Number Is Two Inches
How to start seeds indoors: Minnesota puts the lamp two to four inches above the leaves, and names too little light as the cause of leggy seedlings.
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When to Plant Onions: As Early as You Can, Not Earlier
When to plant onions: as early as you can, but not earlier. Cold doesn’t kill them, it makes them bolt, and bulbing starts on day length, not your date.
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Sweet Potato Slips: The Sprouts Are the Plant
Sweet potato slips are the sprouts on a sweet potato, and they’re how the crop is grown, with or without roots. Here’s how to raise your own slips.
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When to Plant Potatoes: The Crop That Doesn't Wait
When to plant potatoes: before your last frost, once the soil reaches 50°F. A frost costs them two weeks, not the crop. Here’s what they wait for.
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What You Cannot Grow in a 5-Gallon Bucket — It Is Not the Depth
Everybody says buckets are too shallow. They are not — a bucket meets the depth Maryland Extension's deepest class asks for. The real limits are width and weight.
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What Planting Zone Am I In? Find Yours, Then See What It Decides
What planting zone am I in? Look up your USDA hardiness zone, then see what it decides: the coldest zone for 53 perennial crops, and what it can’t tell you.
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What to Grow in a 5-Gallon Bucket — and the Four Crops That Don't Fit
What to grow in a 5-gallon bucket: beans, carrots, chard, cherry tomatoes and cabbage fit. For tomatoes and peppers, five gallons is the floor.
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When to Start Seeds Indoors: Count Back From Your Own Last Frost
When to start seeds indoors: count back from your last spring frost. The date for 28 US metros, the weeks for each crop, and what to do if you started early.
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When to Plant Tomatoes in Your Zone (And Why the Zone Can't Tell You)
When to plant tomatoes in your zone: the zone measures your coldest winter night, not your last spring frost. Here’s what sets your tomato date instead.
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When to Transplant Seedlings: Two Jobs, One Phrase
When to transplant seedlings: potting up and planting out are months apart. Pot up sooner than you think, as soon as the first true leaves appear.
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