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

You should be able to determine when it's a good idea to plant banana by looking at the USDA zone info for Salem.

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 tells us that you have to wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant banana in Salem 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. If you wait any later than that and your banana may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your banana indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Salem. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Salem is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Salem 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 Salem

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 Salem

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