When to Plant Elephant Ears in Buffalo, MN

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

A way of determining when you can plant elephant ears is to look at the USDA zone info for Buffalo.


Planting Calendar for Elephant Ears

Frost tolerance for elephant ears: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's not a good idea to plant elephant ears until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

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

The earliest that you can plant elephant ears in Buffalo is May. However, you really should wait until June if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant elephant ears and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your elephant ears may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your elephant ears indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on May 15 in Buffalo. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Buffalo is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Buffalo there is a last frost after May 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your elephant ears in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Buffalo

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)September 15
Lowest Expected Low-25°F
Highest Expected Low-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Buffalo

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