One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

One way of determining when it's a good idea to plant peas is to refer to the USDA zone info for Cortez.

Planting Calendar for Peas

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

Peas are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which tells us that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant peas in Cortez 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 peas and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your peas may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your peas indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Cortez. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Cortez is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Cortez last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your peas in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Cortez

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

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

Plants to Grow in Cortez

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