When to Plant Chinese chives in Vandalia, IL

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Vandalia it's a good idea to estimate when it's the best time to plant chinese chives.

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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 do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can start planting them earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant chinese chives in Vandalia 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. If you wait any later than that and your chinese chives may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your chinese chives indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Vandalia the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Vandalia is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Vandalia last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your chinese chives in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Vandalia

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 Vandalia

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