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 best time to plant black radish in Mattoon can be figured out by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Black radish

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

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

The earliest that you can plant black radish in Mattoon 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 black radish and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your black radish may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your black radish indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Mattoon. You can expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Mattoon is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Mattoon you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your black radish if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mattoon

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Mattoon

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