When to Plant Iceberg lettuce in Taft, CA

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 checking out the USDA zone info for Taft it's a good idea to figure out when it's possible to plant iceberg lettuce.


Planting Calendar for Iceberg lettuce

Frost tolerance for iceberg lettuce: Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant: Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Iceberg lettuce tend to make it in very little cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant iceberg lettuce in Taft 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 iceberg lettuce and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your iceberg lettuce may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your iceberg lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Taft. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Taft and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Taft you get a frost after February 15 so always be ready to cover your iceberg lettuce if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Taft

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)December 15
Lowest Expected Low25°F
Highest Expected Low30°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 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Taft

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