One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

One way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant shallots is to refer to the USDA zone info for New Prague.

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.

Since shallots are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant shallots in New Prague 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 shallots and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your shallots may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your shallots indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in New Prague. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for New Prague is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in New Prague you get a frost after May 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your shallots if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for New Prague

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

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

Plants to Grow in New Prague

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Prague.