One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

You will be able to determine when you can plant iceberg lettuce by referring to the USDA zone info for Fort Dodge.

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.

Since iceberg lettuce do ok in moderate cold you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant iceberg lettuce in Fort Dodge 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 iceberg lettuce and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your iceberg lettuce may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your iceberg lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Fort Dodge. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Fort Dodge is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Fort Dodge you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your iceberg lettuce if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Fort Dodge

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Fort Dodge

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Fort Dodge.