When to Plant Rhubarb in Hiawatha, IA

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

You should be able to determine when you can plant rhubarb by looking at the USDA zone info for Hiawatha.


Planting Calendar for Rhubarb

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

Rhubarb do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can get them planted earlier than more sensitive plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant rhubarb in Hiawatha 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 rhubarb and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your rhubarb may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your rhubarb indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Hiawatha may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Hiawatha you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your rhubarb in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Hiawatha

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 Hiawatha

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