One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

A common way of getting a good idea when to plant banana is to examine the USDA zone info for Imperial.

Planting Calendar for Banana

Frost tolerance for banana:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

You really shouldn't plant banana until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on January 31 in Imperial. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Imperial may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Imperial you get surprised by a frost after January 31 be ready to protect your banana in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Imperial

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Imperial

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