When to Plant Strawberries in Hartford, WI

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant strawberries is to examine the USDA zone info for Hartford.


Planting Calendar for Strawberries

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

Since strawberries are very cold tolerant you can plant them earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant strawberries
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant strawberries
Probably not a good time to plant strawberries

The earliest that you can plant strawberries in Hartford 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 strawberries and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your strawberries may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your strawberries indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Hartford. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Hartford is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Hartford there is a last frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your strawberries if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Hartford

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-20°F
Highest Expected Low-15°F

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

Plants to Grow in Hartford

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