One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant okra is to refer to the USDA zone info for Baton Rouge.

Planting Calendar for Okra

Frost tolerance for okra:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

Okra are not cold tolerant which means that you must wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant okra in Baton Rouge 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 okra and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your okra may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your okra 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 March 15 in Baton Rouge. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Baton Rouge is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Baton Rouge you get surprised by a frost after March 15 be ready to cover your okra in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Baton Rouge

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°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 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Baton Rouge

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Baton Rouge.