One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

The USDA zone info for Pawtucket should be used to figure out when it's a good idea to plant parsnip.

Planting Calendar for Parsnip

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

Parsnip are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can get them planted earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant parsnip in Pawtucket 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 parsnip and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your parsnip may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your parsnip indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Pawtucket. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Pawtucket and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Pawtucket it frosts late in the year after April 15 so always be ready to protect your parsnip if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Pawtucket

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 Low	0°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 Pawtucket

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