The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

It's possible to estimate when it's the best time to plant gherkins by referring to the USDA zone info for Erie.

Planting Calendar for Gherkins

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant gherkins until after the last frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant gherkins in Erie 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 gherkins and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your gherkins may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your gherkins indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Erie. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Erie is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Erie last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your gherkins if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Erie

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Erie

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