One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the 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 figuring out when it's the best time to plant sweet potatos is to look at the USDA zone info for Council Bluffs.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Potatos

Frost tolerance for sweet potatos:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Since sweet potatos require warm weather it is important to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant sweet potatos in Council Bluffs 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 sweet potatos and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your sweet potatos may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your sweet potatos indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Council Bluffs. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Council Bluffs and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Council Bluffs it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your sweet potatos in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Council Bluffs

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Council Bluffs

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Council Bluffs.