When to Plant Cauliflower in Harvard, IL

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Harvard should be used to figure out when it's possible to plant cauliflower.


Planting Calendar for Cauliflower

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

Cauliflower tend to make it in some cold which tells us that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant cauliflower in Harvard 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 cauliflower and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your cauliflower may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your cauliflower indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Harvard. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Harvard may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Harvard you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your cauliflower in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Harvard

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 Harvard

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