When to Plant Iceberg lettuce in Oelwein, IA

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.

It's a good idea to figure out when it's possible to plant iceberg lettuce by using the USDA zone info for Oelwein.


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 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 Oelwein 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. Any later than that and your iceberg lettuce may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your iceberg lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Oelwein. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Oelwein is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Oelwein you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your iceberg lettuce if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Oelwein

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 Oelwein

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