Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. 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 a good idea to plant potatos in New Orleans by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Potatos

Frost tolerance for potatos:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Potatos can survive in pretty solid cold which tells us that you can plant them earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant potatos in New Orleans is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant potatos and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your potatos may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your potatos indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in New Orleans. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for New Orleans is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in New Orleans there is a last frost after February 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your potatos if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for New Orleans

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in New Orleans

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Orleans.