One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

The earliest that you can plant balsam in Pottstown can be figured out by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Balsam

Frost tolerance for balsam:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant balsam until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

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

The last month that you can plant balsam and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your balsam may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your balsam indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Pottstown is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Pottstown last frost occurs after April 15 so always be ready to cover your balsam if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Pottstown

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 Pottstown

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