One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

The USDA zone info for Waterville should be read to figure out when it's possible to plant strawberries.

Planting Calendar for Strawberries

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

You can plant strawberries much earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant strawberries 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 strawberries and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your strawberries may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your strawberries indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Waterville. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Waterville is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Waterville it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your strawberries in the event of 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.