One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

A common way of getting a good idea when to plant balsam is to consult the USDA zone info for Plaquemine.

Planting Calendar for Balsam

Frost tolerance for balsam:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant balsam until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant balsam in Plaquemine is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant balsam and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your balsam may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your balsam indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Plaquemine. You should expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Plaquemine is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Plaquemine you get surprised by a frost after February 15 be ready to protect your balsam if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Plaquemine

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Plaquemine

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