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.

One way of getting a good idea when you can plant snow peas is to check out the USDA zone info for Merced.

Planting Calendar for Snow peas

Frost tolerance for snow peas:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Since snow peas are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant snow peas in Merced is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant snow peas and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your snow peas may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your snow peas indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Merced the average date of last frost happens on February 15. It might get as low as 20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Merced is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Merced last frost occurs after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your snow peas if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Merced

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 Merced

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