One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

You can estimate when it's a good idea to plant tritoma in Bethalto 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.

Tritoma are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which means that you can start planting them much earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant tritoma in Bethalto 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. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your tritoma indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Bethalto the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Bethalto is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Bethalto there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your tritoma in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Bethalto

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Bethalto

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