Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. 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 sweet potatos in Rockford should be estimated by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Potatos

Frost tolerance for sweet potatos:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Since sweet potatos are not cold tolerant it's necessary to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant sweet potatos in Rockford 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 potatos and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your sweet potatos may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your sweet potatos indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Rockford. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Rockford is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Rockford you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your sweet potatos in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Rockford

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 Rockford

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