One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. 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 estimate when it's a good idea to plant spinach by reviewing the USDA zone info for Ellsworth.

Planting Calendar for Spinach

Frost tolerance for spinach:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since spinach do well in moderate cold you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant spinach in Ellsworth is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant spinach and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your spinach may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your spinach indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Ellsworth. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Ellsworth is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Ellsworth you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your spinach in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ellsworth

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 Ellsworth

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