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

A common way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant stocks is to check out the USDA zone info for Portland.

Planting Calendar for Stocks

Frost tolerance for stocks:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since stocks are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant stocks in Portland 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 stocks and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your stocks may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your stocks indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Portland. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Portland is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Portland you get surprised by a frost after February 15 be ready to protect your stocks if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Portland

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 Portland

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