Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Sumter you can determine when it's the best time to plant banana by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Banana

Frost tolerance for banana:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

You can not plant banana until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant banana in Sumter 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 banana and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your banana may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your banana indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in Sumter. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Sumter is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Sumter last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your banana if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Sumter

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Sumter

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