When to Plant Banana in Mount Vernon, IL

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

You can figure out when it's the best time to plant banana in Mount Vernon by referring to 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.

It's a bad idea to plant banana until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

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 Mount Vernon 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your banana may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your banana indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Mount Vernon. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Mount Vernon and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Mount Vernon there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your banana in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mount Vernon

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 Mount Vernon

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Mount Vernon.