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.

The earliest that you can plant pumpkins in Minooka can be estimated by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Pumpkins

Frost tolerance for pumpkins:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's not a good idea to plant pumpkins until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant pumpkins in Minooka 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 pumpkins and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your pumpkins may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your pumpkins indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Minooka may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Minooka there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your pumpkins if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Minooka

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 Minooka

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