When to Plant Celery in Waterville, ME

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.

It's possible to figure out when it's a good idea to plant celery by referring to the USDA zone info for Waterville.


Planting Calendar for Celery

Frost tolerance for celery: Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant: Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since celery do ok in moderate cold you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant celery
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant celery
Probably not a good time to plant celery

The earliest that you can plant celery in Waterville 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 celery and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your celery may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your celery indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Waterville. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Waterville may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Waterville it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your celery in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Waterville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-20°F
Highest Expected Low-15°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 -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Waterville

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