When to Plant Carrots in Zone 1a

One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 making a decision about when it's possible to plant carrots is to check out the USDA zone info for Zone 1a.


Planting Calendar for Carrots

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

Carrots tend to make it in mild cold which tells us that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant carrots in Zone 1a 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 carrots and expect a good harvest is probably July. If you wait any later than that and your carrots may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your carrots indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on June 15 in Zone 1a. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -60°F.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Zone 1a and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Zone 1a last frost occurs after June 15 be ready to protect your carrots if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 1a

Here is the info for USDA Zone 1a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)June 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)July 15
Lowest Expected Low-60°F
Highest Expected Low-55°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -60°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -55°F.

Plants to Grow in Zone 1a

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 1a.