When to Plant Iceberg lettuce in Elmwood Park, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

You should be able to figure out when it's the best time to plant iceberg lettuce by checking out the USDA zone info for Elmwood Park.


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.

You can plant iceberg lettuce slightly earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate 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 Elmwood Park 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your iceberg lettuce may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your iceberg lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Elmwood Park is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Elmwood Park you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your iceberg lettuce in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Elmwood Park

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 Elmwood Park

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Elmwood Park.