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.

A common way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant lettuce is to examine the USDA zone info for Sanibel.

Planting Calendar for Lettuce

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

Lettuce do well in some cold which tells us that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant lettuce in Sanibel is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant lettuce and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your lettuce may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in Sanibel. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Sanibel is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Sanibel you get a frost after January 31 so be sure to be ready to protect your lettuce in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Sanibel

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Sanibel

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