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

One way of determining when it's a good idea to plant sweet potatos is to refer to the USDA zone info for Hereford.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Potatos

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant sweet potatos until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant sweet potatos in Hereford 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your sweet potatos may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your sweet potatos indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Hereford. You should expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Hereford is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Hereford you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your sweet potatos if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Hereford

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Hereford

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