When to Plant Millet in Maquoketa, 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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Maquoketa it's possible to determine when it's possible to plant millet.


Planting Calendar for Millet

Frost tolerance for millet: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Millet are not cold tolerant which means that it's important to wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

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

The earliest that you can plant millet in Maquoketa 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 millet and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your millet may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your millet indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Maquoketa is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Maquoketa you get a frost after April 15 so always be ready to cover your millet if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Maquoketa

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 Maquoketa

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