Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of getting a good idea when it's the best time to plant tritoma is to examine the USDA zone info for Portage.

Planting Calendar for Tritoma

Frost tolerance for tritoma:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Tritoma are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which means that you can start planting them much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant tritoma in Portage 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 tritoma and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your tritoma may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your tritoma indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Portage the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Portage may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Portage there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your tritoma if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Portage

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 Portage

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