One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

In Alma you can determine when it's the best time to plant shallots by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Shallots

Frost tolerance for shallots:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant shallots slightly earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant shallots in Alma 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 shallots and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your shallots may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your shallots indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Alma. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Alma is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Alma there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your shallots if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Alma

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 Alma

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