When should I plant tomatoes and jalapenos in containers in New Orleans?

By Dan Gill, The Times-Picayune garden columnist

QUESTION: When would be the best time to plant tomatoes and jalapeño peppers in containers? I live near Chalmette. —Anonymous

ANSWER: Since you’ll be planting in containers, it gives you some latitude. We generally wait until the danger of freezes has passed to plant transplants of tomatoes and peppers. This generally occurs around mid-March in the New Orleans area.

So when planting tomato and pepper transplants in the ground, planting in mid-March is recommended to avoid late freezes. But since containers are mobile, you can move them inside a garage if there is a freeze. So you may want to get a head start and plant transplants in containers in late February.