One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can figure out when it's a good idea to plant asparagus in Mankato by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Asparagus

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

You can plant asparagus quite a bit earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

The earliest that you can plant asparagus in Mankato 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 asparagus and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your asparagus may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your asparagus indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on May 15 in Mankato. It might get as low as -25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Mankato is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Mankato you get a frost after May 15 be ready to protect your asparagus if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mankato

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 Mankato

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