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.

One way of figuring out when to plant chives is to check out the USDA zone info for Pittsfield.

Planting Calendar for Chives

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

Chives can survive in a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Pittsfield. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Pittsfield is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Pittsfield it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your chives if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Pittsfield

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 Pittsfield

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