One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

In Effingham you can figure out when it's the best time to plant cauliflower by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Cauliflower

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

Cauliflower tend to make it in moderate cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant cauliflower in Effingham 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 cauliflower and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your cauliflower may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your cauliflower indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Effingham. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Effingham may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Effingham you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your cauliflower in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Effingham

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Effingham

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