When to Plant Sweet Potato Vine in Rantoul, IL

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant sweet potato vine is to look at the USDA zone info for Rantoul.


Planting Calendar for Sweet Potato Vine

Frost tolerance for sweet potato vine: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost.

Since sweet potato vine are not cold tolerant it's necessary to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant sweet potato vine
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant sweet potato vine
Probably not a good time to plant sweet potato vine

The earliest that you can plant sweet potato vine in Rantoul 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 sweet potato vine and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your sweet potato vine may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your sweet potato vine indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Rantoul may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Rantoul you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your sweet potato vine in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rantoul

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 Rantoul

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