The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when it's possible to plant banana is to use the USDA zone info for Elizabeth.

Planting Calendar for Banana

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant banana until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

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

Last Frost Date

In Elizabeth the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as 0°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Elizabeth is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Elizabeth it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your banana if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Elizabeth

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Elizabeth

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