Is it too late to start tomatoes indoors?

I live in zone 5 and wouldn't start seeds this late. Bite the bullet and buy the plants. If you absolutely have to start seeds, I'd get the fastest maturing plant seeds I could find. The 70 days should be from germination.

You do not need to start them indoors this late in the year. Plant the seeds directly in the ground where you want them to grow. They will actually be healthier and grow faster seeded directly in the garden.

Plant the seeds about 2 weeks before the average Last frost of the spring. You can continue planting seeds until about the third week of June.

The days to maturity listed on the seed package is from germination to the plant bearing. Add 2 weeks to what ever the package says. The seed company list the number of days for the earliest plants to bear in their test plots, not the number of days for the average plant to bear.

The only advantage to buying starts is you will know how many plants you will have. There isn't any risk of the seeds not germinating and it being too late to reseed. Over come this by seeding more than you need and weeding out the weaker plants.

People like to buy the starts because they think it gives them an earlier harvest. This is only true if the plants are almost full grown by spring, The small starts produce at the same time as tomatos grown from seed in the garden (when the season tells them to produce).

In your zone, plant at least a couple of early indeterminate types so you will have tomatos all season.

no just start growing them its going to be a long summer

but why not just go and bye the small plants and plant them