One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

The first chance to plant banana in Fort Valley can be estimated by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Banana

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

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

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Fort Valley. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Fort Valley is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Fort Valley it frosts late in the year after March 15 be ready to cover your banana if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Fort Valley

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

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

Plants to Grow in Fort Valley

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Fort Valley.