When to Plant Sweet Potatos in Bartow, FL

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant sweet potatos is to look at the USDA zone info for Bartow.


Planting Calendar for Sweet Potatos

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

Sweet Potatos require warm weather which means that you really should wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant sweet potatos
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant sweet potatos
Probably not a good time to plant sweet potatos

The earliest that you can plant sweet potatos in Bartow 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 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 really do well. Starting your sweet potatos indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Bartow the average date of last frost happens on February 15. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Bartow is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Bartow it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to protect your sweet potatos if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Bartow

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)December 15
Lowest Expected Low25°F
Highest Expected Low30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Bartow

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