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

The first opportunity to plant sweet potato vine in Shafter can be determined by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Potato Vine

Frost tolerance for sweet potato vine:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's probably a bad idea to plant sweet potato vine until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

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

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Shafter may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Shafter there is a last frost after February 15 be ready to protect your sweet potato vine in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Shafter

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 Shafter

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