When to Plant Asparagus in Chester, IL

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.

A common way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant asparagus is to consult the USDA zone info for Chester.


Planting Calendar for Asparagus

Frost tolerance for asparagus: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

You can plant asparagus a lot earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant asparagus in Chester 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 asparagus and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your asparagus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your asparagus indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Chester. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Chester is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Chester it frosts late in the year after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your asparagus if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Chester

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-5°F
Highest Expected Low0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Chester

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