The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant asparagus is to refer to the USDA zone info for Joplin.

Planting Calendar for Asparagus

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

Since asparagus are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant asparagus in Joplin is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant asparagus and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your asparagus may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your asparagus indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Joplin. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Joplin is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Joplin last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your asparagus in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Joplin

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Joplin

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