One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

A way of estimating when it's possible to plant potatos is to examine the USDA zone info for Marlin.

Planting Calendar for Potatos

Frost tolerance for potatos:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Potatos do well in a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant potatos in Marlin 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 potatos and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your potatos may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your potatos indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on March 15 in Marlin. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Marlin is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Marlin there is a last frost after March 15 be ready to protect your potatos in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Marlin

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Marlin

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