One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of figuring out when it's possible to plant sweet potatos is to look at the USDA zone info for Hanford.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Potatos

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

Since sweet potatos require warm weather you have to wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant sweet potatos in Hanford 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. If you are starting your sweet potatos indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Hanford. You should expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Hanford is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Hanford it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to cover your sweet potatos if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Hanford

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Hanford

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