Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of making a decision about when to plant sweet potatos is to examine the USDA zone info for Rochester.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Potatos

Frost tolerance for sweet potatos:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Since sweet potatos require warm weather you must wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant sweet potatos in Rochester 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 sweet potatos and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your sweet potatos may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your sweet potatos indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Rochester. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Rochester may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Rochester you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your sweet potatos if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Rochester

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Rochester

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