When to Plant Lemon grass in Milan, IL

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.

In Milan you can estimate when it's the best time to plant lemon grass by looking at the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Lemon grass

Frost tolerance for lemon grass: Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant: Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant lemon grass a bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

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

The earliest that you can plant lemon grass in Milan is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant lemon grass and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your lemon grass may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your lemon grass indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Milan. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Milan and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Milan there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your lemon grass in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Milan

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 Milan

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