One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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 chicory in Rantoul should be estimated by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Chicory

Frost tolerance for chicory:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant chicory a little bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Rantoul. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Rantoul is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Rantoul you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your chicory in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Rantoul

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 Rantoul

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