One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first opportunity to plant spinach in Salem should be estimated by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Spinach

Frost tolerance for spinach:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Spinach do ok in a little bit of cold which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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

The last month that you can plant spinach and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your spinach may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your spinach indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Salem. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Salem may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Salem you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your spinach in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Salem

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°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 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Salem

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