Asparagus planting calendar
When to plant asparagus — pick your state
Asparagus timing swings hard by climate — choose your state for sow, transplant, and harvest dates calibrated to its USDA zone and frost window.
Northeast
Southeast
Midwest
Southwest
West
Pacific
Not listed: Hawaii — the dominant climate zone there is outside asparagus's practical range, so a generic calendar would mislead more than it helps.
Common questions
When should I plant asparagus?
Asparagus is almost always established from year-old crowns rather than seed; plant them in a prepared trench 20-30 cm deep as soon as the soil can be worked in early spring, 2-3 weeks before the last frost. Do not harvest at all in year one, harvest sparingly for 2-3 weeks in year two, and from year three onward you can take a full 6-8 week spring harvest. Crowns are reliably cold-hardy to zone 3 but require winter dormancy — they are poorly suited to zones 10-11 where winters are too warm to meet the chilling requirement. Because the right window depends on your local frost dates, pick your US state above for a calendar with exact sow, transplant, and harvest dates.
Does the best time to plant asparagus vary by state?
Yes — planting dates swing by several weeks across the US because each state sits in a different USDA zone with its own frost window. Every state page here gives asparagus dates calibrated to that state's climate.
How are these asparagus planting dates calculated?
Each state's dates come from that state's dominant USDA hardiness zone and NOAA average frost dates, then adjusted for asparagus's cold tolerance and days to maturity.