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When to Plant Tropical Water Plants in Storm Lake, IA

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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 Storm Lake should be reffered to in order to figure out when to plant tropical water plants.


Planting Calendar for Tropical Water Plants

Frost tolerance for tropical water plants: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost has passed.

Tropical Water Plants do not do well in cold weather which tells us that you need to wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant tropical water plants
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant tropical water plants
Probably not a good time to plant tropical water plants

The earliest that you can plant tropical water plants in Storm Lake is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant tropical water plants and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your tropical water plants may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your tropical water plants indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Storm Lake. You should expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Storm Lake is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Storm Lake you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your tropical water plants if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Storm Lake

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 Storm Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Storm Lake.