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 way of determining when to plant beets is to examine the USDA zone info for Zone 4b.

Planting Calendar for Beets

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

Beets tend to make it in a little bit of cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant beets in Zone 4b is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant beets and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your beets may not have a chance to really do well. 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

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Zone 4b. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Zone 4b is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Zone 4b last frost occurs after May 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your beets if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 4b

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Zone 4b

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 4b.