When to Plant Millet in Mankato, MN

One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

In Mankato you can determine when you can plant millet by referring to the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Millet

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

Millet are not cold tolerant which means that you have to wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

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

The earliest that you can plant millet in Mankato 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 millet and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your millet may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your millet indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in Mankato. You should expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Mankato may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Mankato there is a last frost after May 15 be ready to protect your millet in the event of 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.