One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

A common way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant tomatos is to use the USDA zone info for Orland Park.

Planting Calendar for Tomatos

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

It's probably not a good idea to plant tomatos until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant tomatos in Orland Park 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 tomatos and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your tomatos may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your tomatos indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Orland Park. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Orland Park is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Orland Park you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your tomatos if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Orland Park

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 Orland Park

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Orland Park.