Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can determine when it's a good idea to plant artichokes in Oak Ridge by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Artichokes

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

Artichokes are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can get them planted earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant artichokes in Oak Ridge 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 artichokes and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your artichokes may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your artichokes indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Oak Ridge. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Oak Ridge is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Oak Ridge it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your artichokes in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Oak Ridge

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Oak Ridge

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Oak Ridge.