One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

It's possible to figure out when it's possible to plant romaine lettuce by referring to the USDA zone info for Wilmington.

Planting Calendar for Romaine lettuce

Frost tolerance for romaine lettuce:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Romaine lettuce are very cold tolerant which tells us that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant romaine lettuce in Wilmington 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 romaine lettuce and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your romaine lettuce may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your romaine lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Wilmington is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Wilmington it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your romaine lettuce in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Wilmington

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 Wilmington

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