One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

A common way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant artichokes is to refer to the USDA zone info for Fitzgerald.

Planting Calendar for Artichokes

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

Artichokes tend to make it in some cold which means that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant artichokes in Fitzgerald 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 artichokes and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your artichokes may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your artichokes indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Fitzgerald. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Fitzgerald and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Fitzgerald it frosts late in the year after March 15 be ready to cover your artichokes if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Fitzgerald

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°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 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Fitzgerald

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