When to Plant Mustard in West Chicago, IL

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

You can figure out when it's possible to plant mustard in West Chicago by referring to the USDA zone info.

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Planting Calendar for Mustard

Frost tolerance for mustard: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost has passed.

It's a bad idea to plant mustard until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant mustard
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant mustard
Probably not a good time to plant mustard

The earliest that you can plant mustard in West Chicago 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 mustard and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your mustard may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your mustard 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 April 15 in West Chicago. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for West Chicago is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in West Chicago you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your mustard in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for West Chicago

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-15°F
Highest Expected Low-10°F

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

Plants to Grow in West Chicago

You may be interested in your other planting guides for West Chicago.