One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant polygonums is to refer to the USDA zone info for Alma.

Planting Calendar for Polygonums

Frost tolerance for polygonums:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

Polygonums do not do well in cold weather which means that you need to wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

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

The last month that you can plant polygonums and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your polygonums may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your polygonums indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Alma. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Alma may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Alma there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your polygonums in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Alma

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Alma

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