One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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 can estimate when you can plant banana in Ankeny by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Banana

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant banana until after the last frost because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant banana in Ankeny 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your banana may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your banana indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Ankeny. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Ankeny is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Ankeny last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your banana if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ankeny

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 Ankeny

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