When to Plant Pumpkins in Atlantic, IA

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.

A common way of estimating when you can plant pumpkins is to use the USDA zone info for Atlantic.


Planting Calendar for Pumpkins

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant pumpkins until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant pumpkins
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant pumpkins
Probably not a good time to plant pumpkins

The earliest that you can plant pumpkins in Atlantic 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 pumpkins and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your pumpkins may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your pumpkins indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Atlantic. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Atlantic may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Atlantic you get a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your pumpkins in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Atlantic

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 Atlantic

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