One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

One way of determining when it's possible to plant gherkins is to look at the USDA zone info for Lemont.

Planting Calendar for Gherkins

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

Since gherkins require warm weather it is necessary to wait until after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Lemont. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Lemont is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Lemont it frosts late in the year after April 15 so always be ready to protect your gherkins in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lemont

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 Lemont

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