One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By using the USDA zone info for Madison you should be able to determine when it's the best time to plant snow peas.

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 very cold tolerant you can plant them much earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant snow peas in Madison 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your snow peas may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your snow peas indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Madison. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Madison is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Madison you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your snow peas if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Madison

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 Madison

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