Sweet potatoes planting calendar
When to plant sweet potatoes — pick your state
Sweet potatoes 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
Common questions
When should I plant sweet potatoes?
Sweet potatoes are extremely frost-tender and demand warm soil — do not transplant slips until soil temperature at 4-inch depth holds at 18 °C (65 °F) or above, typically 3 weeks after the last spring frost. Short-season zones (z5-6) should start slips indoors under lights 5-6 weeks early to ensure 100-120 frost-free days. Avoid zones 3-4 without a floating row cover season-extension strategy; in z9-11 slips can go out as early as late March. 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 sweet potatoes 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 sweet potatoes dates calibrated to that state's climate.
How are these sweet potatoes planting dates calculated?
Each state's dates come from that state's dominant USDA hardiness zone and NOAA average frost dates, then adjusted for sweet potatoes's cold tolerance and days to maturity.