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.

The USDA zone info for Portage can be looked at to determine when you can plant pumpkins.

Planting Calendar for Pumpkins

Frost tolerance for pumpkins:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Pumpkins do not do well in cold weather which means that you must wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Portage. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Portage is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Portage there is a last frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your pumpkins in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Portage

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 Portage

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