Knowing the average frost dates for your area is an important tool for any organic gardener. Whether you are growing in raised beds, vegetables in pots, or have a larger multi-bed vegetable garden, these dates are critical to know for optimum planting times.
Choose your State from the list below.
This will bring up a list of frost dates broken down by town in your state. Find your town and look at the frost dates. If your particular town isn’t listed, look for the town that is nearest to you and shares your general climate and altitude.
Now, we get into How to read the Frost Date chart:
Reading the “Freeze/frost Occurrence Data” that comes up for each state is a bit non‐intuitive, so keep these tips in mind, and remember that you only need to do this once, then write down your first and last frost dates.
-‐Under Threshold, the first vertical column, use the 32F row data.
-‐Under the Spring Date, and Fall Date columns, use the ‘50% probability level’ data.
Now cross reference the two. (Find the number where that column and row cross.)
In the illustration above we see that for the town of Allison, at a 50% probability rate of a 32 degree freeze happens on April 27th and Oct. 4th. This creates (roughly) a 159 day growing season. These are the the key numbers.
You will then have one date in the spring that is your ‘Last Freeze’
And a date in the Fall that is your ‘First Freeze’
The days between these two dates equal the length of your growing season between freezes.
The dates you are looking for are just guidelines. There are lots of other variables across the varied landscape we all grow in. But it’s good to know your general frost free growing season dates for your area and these charts should provide you with your dates.
Last Frost in Spring– First Frost in Autumn– Growing Season Length
Now go write those two dates, and season length down. Keep them. They relate to your particular growing conditions at your home garden. You will then use them to plan your custom planting calendar. If you want to get the Free Custom Planting software, go here.
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