One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

The USDA zone info for Chowchilla can be looked at to figure out when it's the best time to plant sweet peas.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Peas

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

Sweet Peas do ok in very little cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant sweet peas in Chowchilla 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 sweet peas and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your sweet peas may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your sweet peas indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on February 15 in Chowchilla. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Chowchilla and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Chowchilla you get a frost after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your sweet peas in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Chowchilla

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Chowchilla

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