Generate a seed starting schedule based on frost dates and plant-specific timing.
Give it your last spring frost date and the crops you plan to grow, and the calendar returns a schedule of when to sow each one indoors and when to move it outside. Each crop carries a standard timing - so many weeks before the frost date to start seeds, so many before or after to transplant - and the calendar counts back from your date to produce a week-by-week plan. The part that surprises most first-time gardeners: the frost date is a dividing line, not a start line. Broccoli and lettuce go out weeks before it; tomatoes and peppers wait until it has passed.
A concrete input and expected output from the current implementation.
Input
Last spring frost: May 15. Crops: tomatoes, peppers, broccoli.
Expected output
Tomatoes - sow indoors April 3 (6 weeks before frost), transplant after May 15. Peppers - sow indoors March 20 (8 weeks before), transplant after May 15. Broccoli - sow indoors April 17 (4 weeks before), transplant May 1 (2 weeks before frost).
Each date is the frost date counted back by the crop's standard weeks-before-frost: May 15 minus 42 days is April 3, minus 56 days is March 20, minus 28 days is April 17. Warm-season crops like tomatoes and peppers transplant only after the anchor date; cool-season broccoli goes out before it.
You enter a last-spring-frost date and the calendar anchors on it. For every crop on your list it subtracts that crop's standard indoor-start lead time - commonly 4 to 10 weeks - to get a sowing date, then applies a second offset for transplanting: cool-season crops are set out before the anchor, warm-season crops at or after it. Move the frost date and every date shifts with it.
If you do not know your frost date, the tool estimates one from where you are - a zip code, city, or hardiness zone. The value is a long-term average of weather records, not a forecast: in roughly half of years the last spring frost comes later than the date shown. It is also a town-wide number, so a cold valley bottom or warm city center can shift the real date by weeks.
Not directly. The spring schedule counts back from the last spring frost; a fall schedule counts back from the first fall frost, a different date, and runs on days-to-maturity rather than weeks-before-frost. If the tool offers a fall mode, use it. Otherwise take your fall frost date, subtract each crop's days to maturity plus a buffer, and sow that week.
Generally the shorter end - 6 weeks - unless you have strong grow lights. Seedlings that overstay their indoor weeks get leggy and transplant poorly, while slightly young plants usually catch up once they are in the ground. The longer end only pays off when lights are bright enough to grow stocky plants; on a dim windowsill it mostly grows weak stems.
The example and behavioral notes were checked against the browser implementation. Standards and primary references below define the relevant format, formula, or platform behavior.
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