Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Elgin should be reviewed to figure out when it's possible to plant mustard.

Planting Calendar for Mustard

Frost tolerance for mustard:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant mustard until after the last frost because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant mustard in Elgin 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 mustard and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your mustard may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your mustard indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Elgin is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Elgin it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your mustard if you have 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.