When to Plant Flax in Fairfield, IL

One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

It's possible to estimate when to plant flax by referring to the USDA zone info for Fairfield.


Planting Calendar for Flax

Frost tolerance for flax: Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant: Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Flax are moderately cold tolerant which means that you can plant them earlier than more sensitive plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant flax in Fairfield 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 flax and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your flax may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your flax indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Fairfield the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Fairfield is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Fairfield you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your flax if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Fairfield

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-10°F
Highest Expected Low-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Fairfield

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