One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of determining when it's possible to plant celery is to use the USDA zone info for Madison.

Planting Calendar for Celery

Frost tolerance for celery:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Celery tend to make it in some cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant celery in Madison is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant celery and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your celery may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your celery indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Madison the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Madison may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Madison you get a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your celery if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Madison

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Madison

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Madison.