Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first opportunity to plant chinese chives in East Alton should be figured out by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Chinese chives

Frost tolerance for chinese chives:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Chinese chives are moderately cold tolerant which means that you can get them planted earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant chinese chives in East Alton 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 chinese chives and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your chinese chives may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your chinese chives indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in East Alton. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for East Alton is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in East Alton you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so always be ready to cover your chinese chives if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for East Alton

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 East Alton

You may be interested in your other planting guides for East Alton.