One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

You can figure out when it's possible to plant sweet potatos in Lancaster 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.

Since sweet potatos are not cold tolerant you have to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant sweet potatos in Lancaster 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 March 15 in Lancaster. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Lancaster and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Lancaster you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your sweet potatos in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lancaster

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 Lancaster

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