One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant stevia is to look at the USDA zone info for Lakeland.

Planting Calendar for Stevia

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

Since stevia require warm weather you really should wait until after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant stevia in Lakeland 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 stevia and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your stevia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your stevia indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on February 15 in Lakeland. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Lakeland may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Lakeland last frost occurs after February 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your stevia if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Lakeland

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 Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°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 Lakeland

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