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.

A common way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant chives is to examine the USDA zone info for Montoursville.

Planting Calendar for Chives

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

Chives are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which tells us that you can get them planted much earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant chives in Montoursville 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 chives and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your chives may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your chives indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Montoursville. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Montoursville may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Montoursville there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your chives if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Montoursville

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 Montoursville

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