When to Plant Snow peas in Sterling, IL

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 chance to plant snow peas in Sterling can be determined by looking at the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Snow peas

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

Since snow peas are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant snow peas in Sterling 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 snow peas and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your snow peas may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your snow peas indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Sterling. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Sterling is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Sterling last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your snow peas in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Sterling

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 Sterling

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