When to Plant Mustard greens in Mason City, 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.

The USDA zone info for Mason City should be read to estimate when to plant mustard greens.


Planting Calendar for Mustard greens

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

Mustard greens are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which means that you can start planting them earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant mustard greens in Mason City 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 mustard greens and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your mustard greens may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your mustard greens indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Mason City. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Mason City is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Mason City last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your mustard greens if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mason City

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 Mason City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Mason City.