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.

You should be able to figure out when it's a good idea to plant carrots by reviewing the USDA zone info for Hickory.

Planting Calendar for Carrots

Frost tolerance for carrots:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant carrots a little earlier in the year because they are moderately cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant carrots in Hickory 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 carrots and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your carrots may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your carrots indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Hickory. You can expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Hickory is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Hickory last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your carrots in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Hickory

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

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

Plants to Grow in Hickory

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