One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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 estimating when you can plant lupine is to refer to the USDA zone info for Tomah.

Planting Calendar for Lupine

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

Lupine tend to make it in a little bit of cold which means that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on May 15 in Tomah. You should expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Tomah is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Tomah it frosts late in the year after May 15 be ready to cover your lupine if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Tomah

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°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 -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Tomah

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