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.

A way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant didiscus is to examine the USDA zone info for Ottumwa.

Planting Calendar for Didiscus

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

Didiscus are barely cold tolerant which means that you can start planting them slightly earlier than more sensitive plants.

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

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Ottumwa is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Ottumwa there is a last frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your didiscus in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ottumwa

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 Ottumwa

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