One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can determine when it's possible to plant strawberries in Elgin by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Strawberries

Frost tolerance for strawberries:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Since strawberries do well in cold you can plant them much earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant strawberries in Elgin 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 strawberries and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your strawberries may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your strawberries indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Elgin and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Elgin there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your strawberries in the event of one of those late frosts.

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.