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 estimating when it's possible to plant sweet potatos is to look at the USDA zone info for Rancho Santa Margarita.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Potatos

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

You really shouldn't plant sweet potatos until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant sweet potatos in Rancho Santa Margarita 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 sweet potatos and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and 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

In Rancho Santa Margarita the average date of last frost happens on January 31. You should expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Rancho Santa Margarita is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Rancho Santa Margarita there is a last frost after January 31 be ready to protect your sweet potatos if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rancho Santa Margarita

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 Rancho Santa Margarita

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Rancho Santa Margarita.