When to Plant Mustard in Elmwood Park, IL

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the 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.

In Elmwood Park you can estimate when it's the best time to plant mustard by reviewing the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Mustard

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

It's probably not a good idea to plant mustard until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant mustard
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant mustard
Probably not a good time to plant mustard

The earliest that you can plant mustard in Elmwood Park 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. Any later than that and your mustard may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your mustard indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Elmwood Park. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Elmwood Park 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 Elmwood Park it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your mustard in the event of one of those late frosts.

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.