One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the 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 USDA zone info for Muscatine should be reffered to in order to determine when it's the best time to plant sweet peas.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Peas

Frost tolerance for sweet peas:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant sweet peas just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant sweet peas in Muscatine is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant sweet peas and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your sweet peas may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your sweet peas indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Muscatine. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Muscatine is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Muscatine you get a frost after April 15 so always be ready to cover your sweet peas if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Muscatine

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 Muscatine

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