One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

It's a good idea to figure out when it's a good idea to plant stevia by looking at the USDA zone info for Carthage.

Planting Calendar for Stevia

Frost tolerance for stevia:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Since stevia are not cold tolerant you need to wait until after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant stevia in Carthage is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant stevia and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your stevia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your stevia indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Carthage. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Carthage is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Carthage you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your stevia in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Carthage

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Carthage

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