Best Time to Plant Tomatoes?

What do seasoned Medford gardeners say? This is only my second year here, but I gardened in the Willamette Valley in the past. Last year I only planted a few tomatoes, peppers & cucumbers in early May, and we had frost about 1 wk. after I planted them. Most of them made it. I live in town, SE Med.

mark ellw wrote:What do seasoned Medford gardeners say? This is only my second year here, but I gardened in the Willamette Valley in the past. Last year I only planted a few tomatoes, peppers & cucumbers in early May, and we had frost about 1 wk. after I planted them. Most of them made it. I live in town, SE Med.

Not living someplace where I normally have to watch for freezes or frosts - 2021 took me greatly by surprise - I am going to fall back on the old gardening (and many other things) joke.
The best time to have started the long range, difficult job you currently face was last year. The second best time to start? Right now.

Good luck to your tomatoes! I have heard that soil temps are the big sticking point. All those warm weather veggies and fruits do so much better when soil temperature are over 70F. Or so I've been told.

Here in Cheyenne, WY zone 5 we don't plan on planting out tomatoes until after May 15th and a lot of us don't plan on it until Jun 1st

This is a topic near and dear to my heart, because I have spent so much time agonizing over when to plant my tomatoes.  I am relatively new to the Pacific Northwest, and grew tomatoes here for the first time last year.  This year, I spent a lot of time researching and asking advice, before coming to a conclusion. Everyone you ask will have a different opinion it seems.

These are my thoughts:
* Warm season plants like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant cannot tolerate frost and stop growing when the temperature is below 50 degrees.  Exposing them to too much chill will permanently stunt them.  Therefore, when considering what average last frost date to use for these plants, choose a date that has a high probabilty of the last frost date having passed. Charts for average last frost date probablities for your area can be found online.
* Warm the soil with black plastic mulch for at least a few weeks before planting tomatoes.
* For the Pacific Northwest, choose early maturing varieties.
* Then, watch the weather forecast to determine when to transplant your tomatoes into the ground.  If you will be covering the plants at night (which you should), you can plant when nights are projected to be at least be in the high 40's going forward. The frost cover will keep the plants warmer than they'd otherwise be.  Nights need to be at least 50 to 55 degrees for tomatoes, so the cover is really important.
* Protect the plants with some sort of frost cover at night through the end of June.

I am planting my tomatoes tomorrow, after this last low 40's at night cold spell passes. I live just north of Vancouver, WA, but still in what is considered the Willamette Valley.

@Dorothy Pohorelow

Jen Swanson wrote:This is a topic near and dear to my heart, because I have spent so much time agonizing over when to plant my tomatoes.  I am relatively new to the Pacific Northwest, and grew tomatoes here for the first time last year.  This year, I spent a lot of time researching and asking advice, before coming to a conclusion. Everyone you ask will have a different opinion it seems.

These are my thoughts:
* Warm season plants like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant cannot tolerate frost and stop growing when the temperature is below 50 degrees.  Exposing them to too much chill will permanently stunt them.  Therefore, when considering what average last frost date to use for these plants, choose a date that has a high probabilty of the last frost date having passed. Charts for average last frost date probablities for your area can be found online.
* Warm the soil with black plastic mulch for at least a few weeks before planting tomatoes.
* For the Pacific Northwest, choose early maturing varieties.
* Then, watch the weather forecast to determine when to transplant your tomatoes into the ground.  If you will be covering the plants at night (which you should), you can plant when nights are projected to be at least be in the high 40's going forward. The frost cover will keep the plants warmer than they'd otherwise be.  Nights need to be at least 50 to 55 degrees for tomatoes, so the cover is really important.
* Protect the plants with some sort of frost cover at night through the end of June.

I am planting my tomatoes tomorrow, after this last low 40's at night cold spell passes. I live just north of Vancouver, WA, but still in what is considered the Willamette Valley.

so what should I do?

mark ellw wrote:@Dorothy Pohorelow

Jen Swanson wrote:This is a topic near and dear to my heart, because I have spent so much time agonizing over when to plant my tomatoes.  I am relatively new to the Pacific Northwest, and grew tomatoes here for the first time last year.  This year, I spent a lot of time researching and asking advice, before coming to a conclusion. Everyone you ask will have a different opinion it seems.

These are my thoughts:
* Warm season plants like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant cannot tolerate frost and stop growing when the temperature is below 50 degrees.  Exposing them to too much chill will permanently stunt them.  Therefore, when considering what average last frost date to use for these plants, choose a date that has a high probabilty of the last frost date having passed. Charts for average last frost date probablities for your area can be found online.
* Warm the soil with black plastic mulch for at least a few weeks before planting tomatoes.
* For the Pacific Northwest, choose early maturing varieties.
* Then, watch the weather forecast to determine when to transplant your tomatoes into the ground.  If you will be covering the plants at night (which you should), you can plant when nights are projected to be at least be in the high 40's going forward. The frost cover will keep the plants warmer than they'd otherwise be.  Nights need to be at least 50 to 55 degrees for tomatoes, so the cover is really important.
* Protect the plants with some sort of frost cover at night through the end of June.

I am planting my tomatoes tomorrow, after this last low 40's at night cold spell passes. I live just north of Vancouver, WA, but still in what is considered the Willamette Valley.

so what should I do?

I agree with Jen. What I try to do is wait until the lows are staying advice 50 degrees at night, or plant them in a hoop house or other sheltered area once nightly lows are above 40*.

Sorry for the delay I have been out of town at a show...

You have gotten good advice from others the lows above 50 is a very good rule of thumb and can work where ever you are.  If it is too cold your tomatoes will sit and sulk.  
Also it helps to "trench" your tomatoes in cold climates.  This means lay them on their side to plant leaving only the last bit of the stem sticking up.  This lets them root  along the stem up in the warmer layer of the soil and they seem to take off better.