One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Alpena it's possible to estimate when it's possible to plant sweet peas.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Peas

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

Sweet Peas do ok in a tiny bit of cold which means that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant sweet peas in Alpena 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 sweet peas and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your sweet peas may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your sweet peas indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Alpena 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 Alpena you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your sweet peas in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Alpena

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 Alpena

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