One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can figure out when you can plant sweet potatos in Urbana by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Potatos

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

Since sweet potatos are not cold tolerant you really should wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant sweet potatos in Urbana 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. Any later than that and your sweet potatos may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your sweet potatos indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Urbana is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Urbana last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your sweet potatos in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Urbana

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 Urbana

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