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.

The USDA zone info for Newport should be read to estimate when it's possible to plant sweet potatos.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Potatos

Frost tolerance for sweet potatos:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant sweet potatos until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant sweet potatos in Newport is May. However, you really should wait until June 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. If you wait any later than that and your sweet potatos may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your sweet potatos indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on May 15 in Newport. You should expect an average low temperature of -30°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Newport and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Newport it frosts late in the year after May 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your sweet potatos if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Newport

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-30°F
Highest Expected Low	-25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -25°F.

Plants to Grow in Newport

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