When to Plant Potatoes in Missouri: Spring and Fall Dates for South, Central and North Missouri
What Missouri’s extension calendar says about potatoes, copied region by region, plus the frost record at Kansas City International Airport, St Louis Lambert International Airport, and Columbia Regional Airport.
Updated
Figures checked against their sources on ; next check .
For potatoes, MU Extension, University of Missouri prints 3 regions under the heading “Potato, Irish”; the table below copies each entry as printed. How far apart are the rows? 22 days, from March 10 in South Missouri to April 1 in North Missouri.
What MU Extension, University of Missouri prints for potatoes
Nothing in the table has been rounded or reworded.
| Region | Spring planting | Fall planting |
|---|---|---|
| South Missouri | 3/10–30 | — |
| Central Missouri | 3/20–4/10 | — |
| North Missouri | 4/1–15 | — |
Reading the MU Extension, University of Missouri table
Gardeners in the Ozark Plateau use the North dates, MU says, because the higher elevation there brings later spring frosts and earlier fall frosts. The same table names recommended varieties and calls its list the “cream of the crop”, adding that it does not include all of the good ones.
Varieties MU names
On the variety question the calendar is specific, naming Irish Cobbler, Kennebec, Red Norland, Redsen, Red Pontiac, Norgold Russet, and Russet Norkotah.
These are the source’s own recommendations; this page adds none and says nothing about how each performs.
Do potatoes get an indoor start?
Skip the seed tray. The one source that covers this crop, UNH, plants it directly rather than raising seedlings first.
Potatoes are planted as seed potatoes, not seedlings, so none of the saved seed-starting tables applies; UNH’s timing is counted from the last frost instead.
UNH’s own timing for potatoes is 1 to 2 weeks before the last frost, so Missouri’s printed window and UNH’s rule of thumb can be set side by side.
| Source | What it says |
|---|---|
| University of New Hampshire | Not started indoors; plant seed potatoes 1 to 2 weeks before the last frost |
Typical frost dates at Missouri stations
A 50% frost date is a coin flip, not a promise. In half of the years the last spring freeze comes later than the date shown, and in half of them the first fall freeze comes earlier.
No city is assigned to a region below, because the source does not assign them.
| Station | Last spring 32°F | First fall 32°F | Region in the calendar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kansas City International Airport, Missouri | April 13 | October 24 | Not stated by the source |
| St Louis Lambert International Airport, Missouri | April 2 | November 4 | Not stated by the source |
| Columbia Regional Airport, Missouri | April 7 | October 29 | Not stated by the source |
| Branson Airport, Missouri | April 8 | November 2 | Not stated by the source |
| Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport, Missouri | April 5 | October 25 | Not stated by the source |
Worked example
For a gardener near Kansas City International Airport, NOAA’s even-odds frost dates are April 13 in spring and October 24 in fall.
The calendar does not say which region Kansas City International Airport belongs to, so set the date against the rows at each end. South Missouri opens March 10, 34 days before that date; North Missouri opens April 1, 12 days before it.
This is arithmetic on two printed figures, not a forecast: it moves with the year, and your own garden can sit weeks away from the station. Look up the station nearest you in the frost dates tool and repeat the subtraction.
Before you rely on these dates
The county map that decides your region is an image in the MU publication; this page does not reproduce it, so check your region there.
Pencil the printed dates into a calendar, then adjust them after you have watched your own garden for a season.
Sources (4)
- MU Extension, University of Missouri (David H. Trinklein), Vegetable Planting Calendar, G6201, page 3 (Table 2, recommended varieties and planting dates) extension.missouri.edu
- MU Extension, University of Missouri (David H. Trinklein), Vegetable Planting Calendar, G6201, reviewed February 2016 extension.missouri.edu
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, annual and seasonal normals (frost/freeze probabilities by station) ncei.noaa.gov
- University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, Growing Vegetables: When to Plant Your Vegetable Garden (fact sheet) extension.unh.edu