One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

In Fort Madison you can determine when it's a good idea to plant sweet corn by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Sweet corn

Frost tolerance for sweet corn:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant sweet corn just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant sweet corn in Fort Madison is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant sweet corn and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your sweet corn may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your sweet corn indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Fort Madison. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Fort Madison is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Fort Madison it frosts late in the year after April 15 so always be ready to cover your sweet corn if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Fort Madison

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 Fort Madison

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