When to Plant Potatos in Elmwood Park, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

It's possible to determine when to plant potatos by referring to the USDA zone info for Elmwood Park.


Planting Calendar for Potatos

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

Potatos are very cold tolerant which means that you can get them planted much earlier than more sensitive plants.

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

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

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that USDA zone info for Elmwood Park is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Elmwood Park last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your potatos if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Elmwood Park

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 Elmwood Park

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Elmwood Park.