One of the first steps you take when you are estimating your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant jerusalem artichokes is to refer to the USDA zone info for Aurora.

Planting Calendar for Jerusalem artichokes

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

Since jerusalem artichokes are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant jerusalem artichokes in Aurora 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 jerusalem artichokes and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your jerusalem artichokes may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your jerusalem artichokes indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Aurora. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Aurora may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Aurora last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your jerusalem artichokes in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Aurora

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 Aurora

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