When to Plant Carrots in Newton, IA

One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

You will be able to determine when it's the best time to plant carrots by checking out the USDA zone info for Newton.


Planting Calendar for Carrots

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

Carrots do well in moderate cold which means that you can plant them earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant carrots 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 carrots and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your carrots may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your carrots indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Newton. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Newton is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Newton last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your carrots in the event of a surprise late frost.

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.