When to Plant Sweet Potatos in Bakersfield, CA

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

You should be able to estimate when it's a good idea to plant sweet potatos by checking out the USDA zone info for Bakersfield.


Planting Calendar for Sweet Potatos

Frost tolerance for sweet potatos: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After all chance of frost has passed.

Since sweet potatos are not cold tolerant it is necessary to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant sweet potatos
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant sweet potatos
Probably not a good time to plant sweet potatos

The earliest that you can plant sweet potatos in Bakersfield 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 sweet potatos and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your sweet potatos may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your sweet potatos indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Bakersfield the average date of last frost happens on February 15. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Bakersfield and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Bakersfield it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to cover your sweet potatos if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Bakersfield

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)December 15
Lowest Expected Low25°F
Highest Expected Low30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Bakersfield

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