One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

A common way of figuring out when to plant new zealand spinach is to look at the USDA zone info for Mankato.

Planting Calendar for New Zealand spinach

Frost tolerance for new zealand spinach:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant new zealand spinach a little bit earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant new zealand spinach 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 new zealand spinach and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your new zealand spinach may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your new zealand spinach indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last 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.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Mankato and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Mankato there is a last frost after May 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your new zealand spinach 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.