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

The USDA zone info for Columbia can be reviewed to figure out when it's a good idea to plant radicchio.

Planting Calendar for Radicchio

Frost tolerance for radicchio:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant radicchio just a bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant radicchio in Columbia 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 radicchio and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your radicchio may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your radicchio indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Columbia. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Columbia is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Columbia there is a last frost after April 15 so always be ready to cover your radicchio if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Columbia

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 Columbia

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