One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 USDA zone info for Matteson can be looked at to figure out when to plant rhubarb.

Planting Calendar for Rhubarb

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

You can plant rhubarb a little earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant rhubarb in Matteson 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 rhubarb and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your rhubarb may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your rhubarb indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Matteson is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Matteson you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your rhubarb in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Matteson

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 Matteson

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