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 common way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant strawberries is to check out the USDA zone info for Valparaiso.

Planting Calendar for Strawberries

Frost tolerance for strawberries:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Strawberries tend to make it in cold weather which means that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant strawberries in Valparaiso 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 strawberries and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your strawberries may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your strawberries indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Valparaiso. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Valparaiso is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Valparaiso you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your strawberries in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Valparaiso

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°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 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Valparaiso

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