The old adage “Wait for Spring Planting until After Easter” usually works -- but this year, Easter is early! With the holiday taking place on March 31, it may be too early to be reliable as a “rule of thumb”.

Instead, it is best to wait until after April 15, or Tax Day. After this date, there is a rather small chance that a killing freeze will impact the Metro Atlanta region.

The climatological average last spring freeze for Atlanta is March 21, based on the period-of-record that spans back to 1870. The latest spring freeze occurred on April 25, 1910.

In April 6-9 2007, a killing freeze arrived just in time for the Easter holiday, when temperatures dropped into the mid 20s as far south as Middle Georgia.

According to NOAA, the Easter 2007 freeze resulted in a state-wide agricultural production value loss of $257.5 million, with peaches, blueberries and apples experiencing the most freeze damage.

Looking ahead to the next 10 days (graphic below), a spring freeze is not in the forecast, but frosty conditions could still bring an impact to tender summer fruit and vegetable plants.

A few suburbs and communities are forecast to dip into the upper 30s on Good Friday morning, and frosty cold conditions are possible heading into the weekend of April 5-7.

Therefore, keep the tender plants out of the ground until after April 15!

In the event you do experience frost damage, Georgia Gardner Walter Reeves provides numerous tips on how to recover after a spring freeze.

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