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

A way of making a decision about when to plant jerusalem artichokes is to look at the USDA zone info for Estes Park.

Planting Calendar for Jerusalem artichokes

Frost tolerance for jerusalem artichokes:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Jerusalem artichokes are moderately cold tolerant which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Estes Park. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Estes Park is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Estes Park it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your jerusalem artichokes if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Estes Park

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°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 -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Estes Park

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Estes Park.