When to Plant Beets in Columbia, IL

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule. 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 figure out when to plant beets by looking at the USDA zone info for Columbia.


Planting Calendar for Beets

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

Beets do ok in a little bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant beets in Columbia 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 beets and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your beets may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your beets indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Columbia. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Columbia may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Columbia you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your beets if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Columbia

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 Columbia

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