What changed

November 11, 2026

A new kind of page: when to plant a crop in your state. There are 53 of them, covering tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, summer squash, green beans and potatoes in ten states: Virginia, Illinois, Kentucky, South Carolina, Missouri, California, Alabama, Texas, Georgia and North Carolina. Each copies that state's own Extension calendar for the crop, one row per zone or region exactly as printed, and never averages one state with another. Beneath it sit the general seed-starting weeks from other Extension services, NOAA's typical last spring and first fall frost for four or five of that state's cities with a link to each in the frost dates tool, and a worked example. There is an index of every state page, and the spring planting planner now points to it.

The pages rest on nine newly saved Extension publications, checked line by line against the saved copies. Texas has fall pages only, because Texas A&M's spring guidance is not given as dates. Florida, Mississippi and Arkansas are left out because their tables could not be read reliably, and Oklahoma's pages refused our download. The methodology page explains the rule.

A hundred city pages are new: frost dates in each of the 100 largest cities that could meet the site's bar, at /frost-dates/ followed by the city, with an index by state at /frost-dates/cities. Each page gives that city's last spring and first fall frost at 10, 50 and 90 percent odds for 32 and 28 degrees, the frost-free season, the NOAA station behind the numbers with its distance, direction and elevation, planting dates counted with the spring and fall planners' own rules, a worked example, and a comparison with the three nearest cities. The cities were ranked by the Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 population estimates and placed by its 2024 Gazetteer of places, both saved in raw-round5. Places were passed over, and are listed with their reasons on the index, when no station with a complete record lies within 25 miles, when frost is too rare to date or a typical year has none (Los Angeles, San Diego, Miami and Tampa among them), or when a larger city already uses the station. The frost dates page and the methodology page now link to the index.

November 10, 2026

One new page and four expanded ones, all built on 21 newly saved Extension pages. The new page, when to plant garlic, shows what eight Extension pages say about planting garlic in fall, state by state, each in its own words and never averaged. It covers Minnesota, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Utah, Ohio, Iowa, Massachusetts and Colorado, and says plainly that none of the eight ties a planting date to a hardiness zone, so there is no zone lookup. Only Minnesota's rule of one to two weeks after the first killing frost becomes a date, counted from your weather station's NOAA frost dates. The tomato leaf curl troubleshooter has a seedling branch, from University of Maine, West Virginia and Maryland Extension: drainage, acidity and feeding in the pot, gas from a faulty heater, and pests or sprays that distort new growth. The blossom end rot fix now covers squash and zucchini, with Iowa State's way of telling pollination failure from rot and advice from Maryland, South Dakota State and Utah State. The powdery mildew fix has a tomato branch from UC IPM and Utah State, because tomato mildew shows as yellow blotches rather than white powder. The days to harvest chart has a section on when to harvest butternut squash, with ripeness signs, curing and storage from Minnesota, Illinois, UMass and South Dakota State, where the sources disagree on conditions and on how long butternut keeps and both are shown. South Dakota State's blossom end rot page saved only as a summary paragraph, so it supports one claim.

A second new page: when to start tomato seeds indoors. Pick a weather station and it counts the sowing and set-out dates for tomatoes from your last spring frost, once for each source that times them that way: the University of New Hampshire, North Dakota State University and Montana State University. A table beside it sets out what the University of Minnesota, NC State and the University of Georgia say, each in its own row and none averaged. North Dakota State's one-page chart and Montana State's MontGuide are new sources, each saved from its original and checked line by line, and Alabama Extension's germination row and Georgia's tomato circular supply the soil temperatures.

November 9, 2026, round three

The last three pages that were down are back, each rebuilt on newly saved copies of its sources and checked line by line. Soil pH by plant now uses Oklahoma State Extension's table of pH preferences for 36 vegetables, with University of Florida Extension on what happens outside the range (nutrient shortages, metal toxicity, clubroot and potato scab) and the University of Georgia's tomato target. It replaces the earlier list of vegetables and herbs, whose source could not be saved, so the herbs are gone. The lawn mowing height chart now sets three regional tables side by side, from Clemson (South Carolina), Illinois and New Mexico State, with Tennessee's advice on raising the cut before heat and frost; the earlier Maryland and Oklahoma State figures were dropped because neither page could be saved. The tomato leaf curl troubleshooter was rebuilt on Georgia, South Dakota State and Texas A&M Extension and Georgia's tomato circular: it now separates weather-driven leaf roll, cold-soil roll, herbicide drift, herbicide residue in manure or hay, broad mites and viruses. Iowa State's leaf-roll answer is no longer cited. A Hawaii pH table was saved but not used: it is a scanned 1980 reprint whose text cannot be read reliably.

November 8, 2026, round two

Eight of the pages taken down in the third pass are back, each rebuilt on a saved copy of its source and checked line by line: soil temperature for planting (Alabama Extension's germination table, with Colorado State's rule for taking a reading), the blossom end rot and squash troubleshooters, seeds not germinating, crop rotation by plant family (all three of Iowa State's family tables), the first-year garden checklist, the HOA letter and the sprinkler winterization checklist. Some figures did not survive the recheck and were dropped: a tomato pH range whose source could not be saved, a transplanting rule that Penn State gives for annual flowers rather than vegetables, and the Oklahoma State sprinkler steps, whose page could not be saved. The HOA letter now separates Iowa State's reduced-mowing advice from its fine fescue option.

Three pages are new. The hardiness zone lookup gives the half zone for a ZIP code from the listing published with the latest USDA map. The spring planting planner counts UNH Extension's planting times from your own last frost. The powdery mildew troubleshooter follows the University of California's Pest Notes. The frost dates lookup, the fall planner and the spring planner now also accept a ZIP code and list the closest weather stations to it.

Three pages stayed down until a source could be saved: tomato leaf curl, soil pH by plant and lawn mowing height. Round three above brought them back.

November 8, 2026, review pass

Corrections after an editorial review. The about, methodology and home pages now state our table policy accurately: tables are reproduced only from public university Extension publications and NOAA, each credited and linked, and never copied from commercial garden sites. The days to harvest chart no longer says artichokes and asparagus take years; globe artichokes take one year, Jerusalem artichokes six to eight months and asparagus two years. The plant spacing chart's list of the tightest crops now matches NC State's table and the page gained reading help. The fall planting planner now warns that NC State's days were written for central North Carolina. The frost dates page lost several claims about local weather that no saved source supports. The central North Carolina calendar, seed starting schedule, leggy seedlings fix and Georgia calendar had unsupported or garbled sentences fixed. The author page was expanded.

November 8, 2026, third pass

Two tools were added: frost dates by weather station, from NOAA's climate normals for every station in the fifty states, and a fall planting planner that counts back from your station's first frost. Eleven of the first pages were taken down until their sources can be saved and checked line by line: soil temperature for planting, crop rotation, soil pH, lawn mowing height, the blossom end rot, tomato leaf curl, squash and seed germination troubleshooters, the sprinkler and first-year garden checklists, and the HOA letter.

November 8, 2026, second pass

The seed starting schedule now rests on the University of Minnesota's table instead of an undated chart from about 1999. The plant spacing chart now uses NC State Extension's distance between plants, and gives plant spacing only, because that table has no row spacing. The leggy seedlings fix was rebuilt on Minnesota advice alone. Four pages were added: a days to harvest chart and a central North Carolina planting calendar, both from the NC State table; a Georgia vegetable garden calendar from the University of Georgia; and a hardening off checklist from Minnesota. The notes behind these pages quote the saved source pages line by line.

November 8, 2026

The first set of pages was written: charts for soil temperature for planting, seed starting schedule, vegetable plant spacing, crop rotation by plant family, soil pH by plant and lawn mowing height; troubleshooters for blossom end rot, tomato leaf curl, squash flowers without fruit, seeds not germinating and leggy seedlings; checklists for sprinkler winterization and a first-year vegetable garden; and a letter asking an HOA to replace part of a lawn. Every figure was read from its Extension source on this date. Eleven of those pages (soil temperature, crop rotation, soil pH, lawn mowing height, the four troubleshooters other than leggy seedlings, both checklists and the HOA letter) were later withdrawn pending saved copies of their sources, as the third pass above records. The seed starting schedule, plant spacing chart and leggy seedlings fix were rebuilt from saved sources in the second pass.