When to Plant Snow peas in Ottawa, IL

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first opportunity to plant snow peas in Ottawa can be determined by reviewing the USDA zone info.

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Planting Calendar for Snow peas

Frost tolerance for snow peas: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Snow peas are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which tells us that you can get them planted much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant snow peas
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant snow peas
Probably not a good time to plant snow peas

The earliest that you can plant snow peas in Ottawa is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant snow peas and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your snow peas may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your snow peas indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Ottawa the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Ottawa is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Ottawa you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your snow peas if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ottawa

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-15°F
Highest Expected Low-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Ottawa

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Ottawa.