One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

In Knoxville you can estimate when it's the best time to plant tritoma 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 one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them much earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant tritoma in Knoxville 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. If you wait any later than that and your tritoma may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your tritoma indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Knoxville the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Knoxville may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Knoxville you get surprised by 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 Knoxville

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 Knoxville

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