One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

The first chance to plant banana in Joliet should be figured out by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Banana

Frost tolerance for banana:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant banana until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

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

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Joliet 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 Joliet last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your banana if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Joliet

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 Joliet

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