When to Plant Potatos in Waterville, ME

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can estimate when you can plant potatos in Waterville 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 do ok in a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant potatos in Waterville 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 potatos and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your potatos may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your potatos 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 has passed is on April 15 in Waterville. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Waterville and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Waterville it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your potatos if you have one of those late frosts.

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.