One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

The best time to plant tritoma in Erie can be figured out by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Tritoma

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

Since tritoma are very cold tolerant 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 tritoma in Erie 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 tritoma and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your tritoma may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your tritoma indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Erie is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Erie you get a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your tritoma if you have a late frost.

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.