One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

A common way of figuring out when it's possible to plant perilla is to consult the USDA zone info for Mena.

Planting Calendar for Perilla

Frost tolerance for perilla:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's probably not a good idea to plant perilla until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant perilla in Mena 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 perilla and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your perilla may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your perilla indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Mena. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Mena and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Mena it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your perilla if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mena

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 Mena

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