One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of figuring out when you can plant balsam is to use the USDA zone info for Alice.

Planting Calendar for Balsam

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant balsam until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

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

The last month that you can plant balsam and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your balsam may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your balsam 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 has passed is on February 15 in Alice. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Alice is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Alice you get surprised by a frost after February 15 be ready to cover your balsam in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Alice

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Alice

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