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 you can plant balsam is to look at the USDA zone info for Kosciusko.

Planting Calendar for Balsam

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

Since balsam do not do well in cold weather you need to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant balsam in Kosciusko 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 balsam and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your balsam may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your balsam indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Kosciusko the average date of last frost happens on March 15. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Kosciusko is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Kosciusko you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your balsam if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Kosciusko

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Kosciusko

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