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.

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

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 a lot earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant chives in Williamsport 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. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your chives indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Williamsport. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Williamsport and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Williamsport there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your chives in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Williamsport

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 Williamsport

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