One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant parsnip is to use the USDA zone info for Concord.

Planting Calendar for Parsnip

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

Since parsnip do well in moderate cold you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant parsnip in Concord 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 parsnip and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your parsnip may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your parsnip indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Concord. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Concord is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Concord you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your parsnip if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Concord

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Concord

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