One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

You should be able to estimate when it's the best time to plant sweet corn by checking out the USDA zone info for Decatur.

Planting Calendar for Sweet corn

Frost tolerance for sweet corn:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since sweet corn are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant sweet corn in Decatur 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 corn and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your sweet corn may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your sweet corn indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Decatur the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Decatur is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Decatur last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your sweet corn if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Decatur

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Decatur

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