When to Plant Beets in Newton, 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.

By looking at the USDA zone info for Newton you should be able to determine when it's possible to plant beets.


Planting Calendar for Beets

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

Beets do ok in moderate cold which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant beets in Newton 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 beets and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your beets may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your beets indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Newton. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Newton is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Newton it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your beets if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Newton

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 Newton

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