One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

One way of figuring out when you can plant strawberries is to examine the USDA zone info for Galesburg.

Planting Calendar for Strawberries

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

You can plant strawberries earlier in the year because they are very cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant strawberries in Galesburg 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. If you wait any later than that and your strawberries may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your strawberries indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Galesburg may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Galesburg there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your strawberries if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Galesburg

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 Galesburg

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