Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The earliest that you can plant flax in Ames should be determined by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Flax

Frost tolerance for flax:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since flax are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant flax in Ames 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 flax and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your flax may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your flax indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Ames. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Ames is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Ames it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your flax in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ames

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Ames

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