One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

One way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant sweet corn is to use the USDA zone info for Salem.

Planting Calendar for Sweet corn

Frost tolerance for sweet corn:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Sweet corn tend to make it in a tiny bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant sweet corn in Salem 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 sweet corn and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your sweet corn may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your sweet corn indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Salem. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Salem is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Salem you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your sweet corn in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Salem

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Salem

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