Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when it's the best time to plant banana is to check out the USDA zone info for Slidell.

Planting Calendar for Banana

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

Banana do not do well in cold weather which means that it's necessary 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 Slidell is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant banana and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your banana may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your banana indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Slidell. You should expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Slidell may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Slidell it frosts late in the year after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your banana in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Slidell

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Slidell

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