The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when it's possible to plant pennisetum is to use the USDA zone info for Tuskegee.

Planting Calendar for Pennisetum

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

Since pennisetum do ok in moderate cold you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant pennisetum in Tuskegee 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 pennisetum and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your pennisetum may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your pennisetum indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Tuskegee. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Tuskegee is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Tuskegee you get surprised by a frost after March 15 be ready to protect your pennisetum if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Tuskegee

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Tuskegee

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