Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can determine when it's a good idea to plant artichokes in Alva by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Artichokes

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

Artichokes are moderately cold tolerant which means that you can plant them earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant artichokes in Alva 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 artichokes and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your artichokes may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your artichokes indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Alva. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Alva is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Alva you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your artichokes in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Alva

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°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 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Alva

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