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

You can figure out when it's a good idea to plant asparagus in Amherst by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Asparagus

Frost tolerance for asparagus:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Asparagus do ok in pretty solid cold which tells us that you can plant them earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant asparagus in Amherst 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 asparagus and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your asparagus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your asparagus indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Amherst. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Amherst may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Amherst you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your asparagus in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Amherst

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 Amherst

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