On 4 Mar 2007 23:39:19 GMT, General Schvantzkoph
wrote:

I'm going to plant tomatoes from seed this year rather than buy plants.
I'd also like to have them ready by the middle of July ...

Based on somewhat limited experience, my opinion is that stuff doesn't
start growing outdoors until the soil gets warm. Here (central NY, zone
5-ish), that seems to be mid- to late June. There's a soil temp map at
http://www.greencastonline.com/SoilTempMaps.aspx, which is pretty
interesting, whether my model is right or not.

Anyway, if I wanted to get early yield outdoors, I'd put some sort of
cover over the plants.

George