One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Portage can be reviewed to figure out when it's a good idea to plant purslane.

Planting Calendar for Purslane

Frost tolerance for purslane:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant purslane just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant purslane in Portage is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant purslane and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your purslane may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your purslane indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Portage. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Portage is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Portage it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your purslane if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Portage

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 Portage

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