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

A common way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant chard is to look at the USDA zone info for Quitman.

Planting Calendar for Chard

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

Chard do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can get them planted earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant chard in Quitman 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 chard and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your chard may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your chard indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Quitman. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

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

USDA Zone Info for Quitman

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 Quitman

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