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

It's a good idea to estimate when to plant tagetes by using the USDA zone info for Alpena.

Planting Calendar for Tagetes

Frost tolerance for tagetes:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

Tagetes are not cold tolerant which means that you must wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

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

The last month that you can plant tagetes and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your tagetes may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your tagetes indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Alpena. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Alpena is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Alpena last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your tagetes if you have 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.