One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

A way of estimating when it's the best time to plant tritoma is to use the USDA zone info for Alva.

Planting Calendar for Tritoma

Frost tolerance for tritoma:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Tritoma are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which tells us that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant tritoma 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 tritoma and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your tritoma may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your tritoma indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Alva the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can 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 can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Alva you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your tritoma if you have 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.