One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

In Chadron you can determine when it's possible to plant turnips by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Turnips

Frost tolerance for turnips:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant turnips until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant turnips in Chadron 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 turnips and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your turnips may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your turnips indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Chadron. You should expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Chadron is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Chadron it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your turnips if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Chadron

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Chadron

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