When to Plant Snow-in Summer in Pella, IA

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

A common way of determining when it's a good idea to plant snow-in summer is to look at the USDA zone info for Pella.


Planting Calendar for Snow-in Summer

Frost tolerance for snow-in summer: Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant: Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Snow-in Summer do ok in moderate cold which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant snow-in summer
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant snow-in summer
Probably not a good time to plant snow-in summer

The earliest that you can plant snow-in summer in Pella 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 snow-in summer and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your snow-in summer may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your snow-in summer indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Pella the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Pella is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Pella it frosts late in the year after April 15 so always be ready to cover your snow-in summer in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Pella

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 Pella

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