When to Plant Cucumbers in Mendota, IL

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when you can plant cucumbers is to consult the USDA zone info for Mendota.


Planting Calendar for Cucumbers

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

Cucumbers require warm weather which means that it is important to wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

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

The earliest that you can plant cucumbers in Mendota 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 cucumbers and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your cucumbers may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your cucumbers indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Mendota. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Mendota is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Mendota it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your cucumbers in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mendota

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 Mendota

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