The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By referring to the USDA zone info for Madison it's a good idea to determine when it's a good idea to plant sweet potatos.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Potatos

Frost tolerance for sweet potatos:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Sweet Potatos are not cold tolerant which tells us that you must wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

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

The last month that you can plant sweet potatos and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your sweet potatos may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your sweet potatos indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Madison. You can expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Madison is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Madison it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your sweet potatos in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Madison

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 Madison

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