When to Plant Sweet Potatos in Ephrata, PA

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Ephrata you can estimate when it's a good idea to plant sweet potatos by checking out 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.

Sweet Potatos require warm weather which means that it is necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant sweet potatos
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant sweet potatos
Probably not a good time to plant sweet potatos

The earliest that you can plant sweet potatos in Ephrata 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 couple of weeks earlier by starting your sweet potatos indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Ephrata. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

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

USDA Zone Info for Ephrata

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 Low0°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 Ephrata

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