One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

By referring to the USDA zone info for Chesapeake you should be able to figure out when to plant amaranthus.

Planting Calendar for Amaranthus

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

You can not plant amaranthus until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

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

The last month that you can plant amaranthus and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your amaranthus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your amaranthus indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Chesapeake. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Chesapeake is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Chesapeake there is a last frost after March 15 be ready to protect your amaranthus if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Chesapeake

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Chesapeake

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