One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Oak Forest can be read to determine when it's the best time to plant romaine lettuce.

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 are very cold tolerant which means that you can get them planted much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant romaine lettuce in Oak Forest 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 fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your romaine lettuce indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Oak Forest. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Oak Forest is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Oak Forest last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your romaine lettuce in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Oak Forest

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 Oak Forest

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Oak Forest.