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 best time to plant sweet potatos in Madison should be figured out by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Potatos

Frost tolerance for sweet potatos:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Since sweet potatos require warm weather you must wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant sweet potatos in Madison 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 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 little bit earlier by starting your sweet potatos indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Madison. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Madison 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 Madison you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your sweet potatos if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Madison

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 Madison

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