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

The USDA zone info for New Castle can be read to estimate when it's a good idea to plant chicory.

Planting Calendar for Chicory

Frost tolerance for chicory:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Chicory can survive in some cold which means 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 chicory in New Castle 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 chicory and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your chicory may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your chicory indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in New Castle. It might get as low as 0°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for New Castle and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in New Castle there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your chicory if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for New Castle

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in New Castle

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Castle.