When to Plant Broccoli in Watertown, SD

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

A common way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant broccoli is to use the USDA zone info for Watertown.


Planting Calendar for Broccoli

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

Broccoli do well in moderate cold which means that you can plant them earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant broccoli in Watertown is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant broccoli and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your broccoli may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your broccoli indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Watertown. You can expect an average low temperature of -30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Watertown and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Watertown you get surprised by a frost after May 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your broccoli in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Watertown

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)September 15
Lowest Expected Low-30°F
Highest Expected Low-25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -25°F.

Plants to Grow in Watertown

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