When to Plant Pumpkins in Gladstone, MI

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when you can plant pumpkins is to look at the USDA zone info for Gladstone.


Planting Calendar for Pumpkins

Frost tolerance for pumpkins: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After all chance of frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant pumpkins until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

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

The earliest that you can plant pumpkins in Gladstone is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant pumpkins and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your pumpkins may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your pumpkins indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Gladstone. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Gladstone and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Gladstone last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your pumpkins in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Gladstone

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 Gladstone

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