When to Plant Romaine lettuce in Minooka, IL

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

The first opportunity to plant romaine lettuce in Minooka should be estimated by reviewing the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Romaine lettuce

Frost tolerance for romaine lettuce: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Romaine lettuce do ok in quite a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant romaine lettuce in Minooka 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 romaine lettuce and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your romaine lettuce may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your romaine lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Minooka the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Minooka is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Minooka you get a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your romaine lettuce in the event of 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.