The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when you can plant stevia is to look at the USDA zone info for Crystal Lake.

Planting Calendar for Stevia

Frost tolerance for stevia:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's a bad idea to plant stevia until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant stevia in Crystal Lake is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant stevia and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your stevia may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your stevia indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Crystal Lake the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Crystal Lake is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Crystal Lake it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your stevia in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Crystal Lake

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 Crystal Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Crystal Lake.