When to Plant Chives in Whitehall, PA

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.

The USDA zone info for Whitehall should be read to determine when it's a good idea to plant chives.


Planting Calendar for Chives

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

Chives do ok in quite a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant chives
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant chives
Probably not a good time to plant chives

The earliest that you can plant chives in Whitehall 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. Any later than that and your chives may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your chives indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Whitehall the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Whitehall is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Whitehall it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your chives if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Whitehall

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 Low0°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 Whitehall

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