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 common way of estimating when it's the best time to plant corn is to examine the USDA zone info for Big Stone Gap.

Planting Calendar for Corn

Frost tolerance for corn:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant corn until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant corn in Big Stone Gap 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 corn and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your corn may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your corn indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Big Stone Gap. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Big Stone Gap is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Big Stone Gap last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your corn in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Big Stone Gap

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 Big Stone Gap

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Big Stone Gap.