I usually start tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, onions, basil, parsley, oregano & marjoram inside after the first week of March.

Last year I started my seeds about April 28th. I transplanted outside on June 3rd I believe. Kind of a late start.

This year I started one seed on Jan, 17th and repotted twice so far. I just repotted yesterday to a bigger pot.

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I pruned the two bottom stems off and replanted it deeper. I hope to plant it to a 5 gal self watering bucket outside with the rest of my plants on Memorial Day.

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I have more that I'm going to start around April 20th so I can get them out by Memorial Day weekend.

I've started in February but I think that planting out early just leads to more problems for me, blossom end rot and catfacing.
I'm waiting until March this year.
They may get leggy but you can always bury the stems.
Black tomatoes are great!

Its Always nice to see pictures, Thank you for sharing GRB1! I guess ill get ready for a 2nd batch of plants by Early March.

Sumilea

We're "mapped" as a Zone 5, but it acts more like a Zone 4 here, and early June is our planting-out date. I can put them out sooner if I make a tent for them in the greenhouse and keep it warm at night or during cold snaps. We'll have random cold nights and even a couple snows or frosts through most of June, so we need to keep on our toes.

Starting indoors in January or early February, the plants are often so large they need two potting up sessions and it gets to where there is no room to place them where they still get enough light. Leaves begin to drop and I end up deep- or trench-planting 3-foot tall twigs.

So I aim for late February germinating and get them out to the gh when room gets too tight indoors, usually sometime in May. I deal with the weather then as it's dealt to us, every season is a little different by a few weeks. Inside the unheated gh, with simple tents or covers for the plants, it only takes some Christmas lights or a small 60-watt bulb and a small fan to keep them happy, even when it dips down to 15 or so outside. Colder than that, I must add a small heater in the gh proper. A remote thermometer and frequent visits keep me advised.

We enjoyed our first tom on the 3rd of July last season, that's the earliest ever for us. If I wait till mid-March to germinate, I don't have to deal with heating them in the gh as much, but it's also getting into late July or August for ripeness and late-season types barely squeek in before frost, so I need as early a start as I can manage.

Too early comes with its own set of problems. But, if you can pot up adequately and give the whole plant lots of light (not just their tops from an overhead shop light), plus handle the much trickier hardening off and planting out of these overlarge "seedlings," it can work to your advantage. Since you have just the one or a few early starts, maybe just keep it to a large pot and set outdoors when it's a good time. That way, you can always haul it back in if there's a late frost or for hardening off. Just protect it from strong winds so it won't blow over!

I also sell a few plants and getting that just-right combo of good size and vigorous health always helps sell them. Spindly, sickly too-early plants or too-late, too-small don't work. Timing your own season is the key, with proper light and space to grow indoors till then.

-Ed

I won't plant out in my zone 5 area until two weeks past the last average frost date, which is May 15th, so early June is my target for setting out. Any earlier than that and the plants could become/have become frosted out. I usually grew many hundreeds of plants so there was no way to protect them from late frosts.

So, assuming my own saved seed was fresh and good germination was to be expected, I sowed seed about mid-April, or so, and cherry tomatoes about one week later than the others since they grow faster.

If I had rare old seed that I wasn't sure about germination I'd sow that seed in mid=March.

By sowing seed in mid-April I also included about a week for hardening off before setting plants out.

BTW, Kumato is an F1 hybrid, so while saved seeds will probably give rise to some plants with dark colored fruits, they probably won't be the ame as the F1's. Syngentea introduced this variety as Kumato in Europe and Australia but changed the name and introduced it to most of the US as Bruno, or something like that in most of the US. But there are many many so called black varieties sold commercially at many seed sources.

Carolyn

About mid-April. I get a very cool spring here since I'm right next to Lake Michigan. I plant around the last week of May or the first week of June, depending on the weather forcast. I also agree that "zone 5" covers a HUGE amount of different micro climates, with a wide varieties of local conditions. Your best bet is to observe local conditions and learn from experience. Good luck!

Mike