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.

In Rifle you can figure out when to plant corn by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Corn

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

It's not a good idea to plant corn until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant corn in Rifle is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant corn and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your corn may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your corn indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Rifle. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Rifle and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Rifle you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your corn in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Rifle

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Rifle

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