One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the 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 Yakima can be looked at to determine when you can plant beets.

Planting Calendar for Beets

Frost tolerance for beets:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since beets do well in moderate cold you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant beets in Yakima 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 beets and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your beets may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your beets indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Yakima. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Yakima may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Yakima you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your beets if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Yakima

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 Yakima

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