When to Plant Peas in Benton, IL

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of figuring out when it's possible to plant peas is to check out the USDA zone info for Benton.


Planting Calendar for Peas

Frost tolerance for peas: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Peas do ok in pretty solid cold which tells us that you can plant them earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant peas
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant peas
Probably not a good time to plant peas

The earliest that you can plant peas in Benton 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 peas and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your peas may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your peas indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Benton. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Benton is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Benton it frosts late in the year after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your peas if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Benton

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-5°F
Highest Expected Low0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Benton

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