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When to Plant Iceberg lettuce in Elgin, IL

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.

A common way of estimating when it's the best time to plant iceberg lettuce is to use the USDA zone info for Elgin.


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.

Iceberg lettuce are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which tells us that you can start planting them slightly earlier 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 Elgin 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 fully mature. If you are starting your iceberg lettuce indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Elgin. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Elgin and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Elgin it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your iceberg lettuce in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Elgin

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 Elgin

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