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.

A common way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant pennisetum is to refer to the USDA zone info for Mascoutah.

Planting Calendar for Pennisetum

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

Pennisetum do ok in very little cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant pennisetum in Mascoutah 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 pennisetum and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your pennisetum may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your pennisetum indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Mascoutah. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Mascoutah is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Mascoutah it frosts late in the year after April 15 so always be ready to cover your pennisetum in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Mascoutah

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

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

Plants to Grow in Mascoutah

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