When to Plant Chicory in Chapel Hill, NC

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.

It's possible to figure out when to plant chicory by using the USDA zone info for Chapel Hill.


Planting Calendar for Chicory

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

Since chicory are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant chicory
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant chicory
Probably not a good time to plant chicory

The earliest that you can plant chicory in Chapel Hill 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 chicory and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your chicory may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your chicory indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Chapel Hill. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Chapel Hill is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Chapel Hill last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your chicory if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Chapel Hill

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low5°F
Highest Expected Low10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Chapel Hill

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Chapel Hill.