Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when to plant sweet potatos is to check out the USDA zone info for Opelika.

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.

You really shouldn't plant sweet potatos until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant sweet potatos in Opelika 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. If you wait any later than that and your sweet potatos may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your sweet potatos indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Opelika. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Opelika is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Opelika last frost occurs after March 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your sweet potatos if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Opelika

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Opelika

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