One of the first steps you take when you are estimating your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can figure out when it's a good idea to plant millet in Normal by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Millet

Frost tolerance for millet:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

You can not plant millet until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant millet in Normal 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 millet and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your millet may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your millet indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Normal. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Normal 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 Normal you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your millet if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Normal

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 Normal

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