One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the 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 the best time to plant purslane is to check out the USDA zone info for Alfred.

Planting Calendar for Purslane

Frost tolerance for purslane:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Purslane are barely cold tolerant which means that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant purslane in Alfred is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant purslane and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your purslane may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your purslane indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Alfred the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Alfred is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Alfred you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your purslane if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Alfred

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Alfred

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