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 determine when it's a good idea to plant chinese chives by looking at the USDA zone info for Oak Ridge.

Planting Calendar for Chinese chives

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

Chinese chives do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can start planting them earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant chinese chives in Oak Ridge 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 chinese chives and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your chinese chives may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your chinese chives indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Oak Ridge. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Oak Ridge and it is different every year. Half of the time in Oak Ridge last frost occurs after April 15 so always be ready to cover your chinese chives if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Oak Ridge

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 Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°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 Oak Ridge

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Oak Ridge.