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.

The USDA zone info for Madison can be looked at to figure out when it's a good idea to plant celery.

Planting Calendar for Celery

Frost tolerance for celery:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant celery slightly earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

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

The last month that you can plant celery and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your celery may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your celery indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Madison. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Madison and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Madison last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your celery in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Madison

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

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

Plants to Grow in Madison

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