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.

A common way of getting a good idea when you can plant sweet corn is to consult the USDA zone info for Joplin.

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.

Sweet corn do ok in a tiny bit of cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant sweet corn in Joplin 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. If you wait any later than that and your sweet corn may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your sweet corn indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Joplin. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Joplin is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Joplin it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your sweet corn in the event of a 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.