When to Plant Tritoma in Sterling, IL

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

The earliest that you can plant tritoma in Sterling can be figured out 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.

Since tritoma 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 more sensitive plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant tritoma 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 tritoma and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your tritoma may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your tritoma indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Sterling the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Sterling is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Sterling there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your tritoma in the event of a surprise 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.