When to Plant Strawberries in Le Mars, IA

One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

The USDA zone info for Le Mars can be reffered to in order to figure out when it's possible to plant strawberries.


Planting Calendar for Strawberries

Frost tolerance for strawberries: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Strawberries are very cold tolerant which means that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Le Mars. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Le Mars is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Le Mars last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your strawberries in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Le Mars

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 Le Mars

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Le Mars.