Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant salsify is to refer to the USDA zone info for Muscatine.

Planting Calendar for Salsify

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

Salsify are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which means that you can start planting them slightly earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant salsify in Muscatine 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 salsify and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your salsify may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your salsify indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Muscatine may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Muscatine you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your salsify if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Muscatine

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 Muscatine

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