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.

The USDA zone info for Columbia can be looked at to figure out when you can plant lemon grass.

Planting Calendar for Lemon grass

Frost tolerance for lemon grass:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Lemon grass do ok in moderate cold which tells us that you can start planting them slightly earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant lemon grass in Columbia 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 lemon grass and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your lemon grass may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your lemon grass indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Columbia the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Columbia is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Columbia you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your lemon grass if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Columbia

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Columbia

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