When to Plant Banana in Jacksonville, IL

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 best time to plant banana in Jacksonville can be figured out by looking at the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Banana

Frost tolerance for banana: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After all chance of frost has passed.

Banana are not cold tolerant which means that you have to wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

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

The earliest that you can plant banana in Jacksonville 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 banana and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your banana may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your banana indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Jacksonville. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Jacksonville is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Jacksonville you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your banana in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Jacksonville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-10°F
Highest Expected Low-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Jacksonville

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