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.

In West Des Moines you can figure out when it's the best time to plant sweet corn by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Sweet corn

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

You can plant sweet corn just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant sweet corn in West Des Moines 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 sweet corn and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your sweet corn may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your sweet corn indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in West Des Moines. You should expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for West Des Moines and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in West Des Moines you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your sweet corn if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for West Des Moines

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 West Des Moines

You may be interested in your other planting guides for West Des Moines.