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.

In Poughkeepsie you can estimate when it's possible to plant festuca by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Festuca

Frost tolerance for festuca:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since festuca are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant festuca in Poughkeepsie 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 festuca and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your festuca may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your festuca indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Poughkeepsie. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Poughkeepsie is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Poughkeepsie you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your festuca if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Poughkeepsie

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Poughkeepsie

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