One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

The USDA zone info for Rapid City should be used to determine when it's possible to plant chinese chives.

Planting Calendar for Chinese chives

Frost tolerance for chinese chives:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Chinese chives are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can start planting them earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant chinese chives in Rapid City 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 chinese chives and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your chinese chives may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your chinese chives indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Rapid City. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Rapid City is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Rapid City last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your chinese chives in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rapid City

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Rapid City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Rapid City.