One of the first steps you take when you are estimating your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of determining when you can plant sweet corn is to examine the USDA zone info for Columbia.

Planting Calendar for Sweet corn

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

Since sweet corn are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant sweet corn 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 sweet corn and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your sweet corn may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your sweet corn indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Columbia may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Columbia there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your sweet corn 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.